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R ATIONAL A CTION T HEORY. Q UANTITATIVE A NALYSIS OF LARGE-SCALE D ATA SETS. ?. RAT AND QAD , ARE THEY MARRIED BY NOW OR STILL SINGLES?. THE BRIEF ANSWER: RAT AND QAD STILL HAVE NOT TIED THE KNOT AND ACTUALLY, RAT NOW IS CALLING QAD NAMES
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RATIONAL ACTION THEORY QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF LARGE-SCALE DATA SETS ? RAT AND QAD, ARE THEY MARRIED BY NOW OR STILL SINGLES?
THE BRIEF ANSWER: RAT AND QAD STILL HAVE NOT TIED THE KNOT AND ACTUALLY, RAT NOW IS CALLING QAD NAMES THE INVENTED INVECTIVE: VARIABLE SOCIOLOGY
WOUT ULTEE DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY RADBOUD UNIVERSITY NIJMEGEN THE NETHERLANDS ICS 20th ANNIVERSARY GRONINGEN NOVEMBER 11, 2006
TO ANSWER ITS QUESTION, THIS PRESENTATION DISCUSSES PAPERS BY NEED AND VAN TUBERGEN IT SEEMS OBVIOUS THAT THE THESE TWO PAPERS, FROM ICS MEMBERS, ARE MORE WITHIN QAD THAN WITHIN RAT VARIABLE SOCIOLOGY IS ALIVE AND WELL IN THE ICS?
SEQUENCE IN MY PRESENTATION * DID RAT INVENT A SCAPEGOAT? * DOES RAT OFFER A SOUND EXEMPLAR? * DOES RAT HAVE ENOUGH PUZZLES? * HOW DOES RAT DEAL WITH CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS? * RAT AND ONE- OR MULTI-LAYERED THEORIES? * RAT: ONLY MARKETS OR MORE INSTITUTIONS? * RAT: INDIVIDUALS WHO ACT LOGICALLY OR INDIVIDUALS WHO THINK IN ANALOGIES? IS RAT A STUMBLING PARADIGM?
RAT HAS QAD AS A SCAPEGOAT AND THE BÊTE NOIRE IS DUNCAN’S PATH MODEL OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC LIFE CYCLE BOUDON CURSED DUNCAN’S MODEL AS VARIABLE SOCIOLOGY, THAT TERM OF OPPROBATION WAS APPLIED AGAIN TO DUNCAN’S MODEL BY HEDSTRÖM AND IS NOWAPPLIED GENERALLY BY ESSER
BLAU & DUNCAN, THE AMERICAN OCCUPATIONAL STRUCTURE, 1967, p. 170 THE BASIC MODEL, WHICH PERTAINS TO THE USA IN 1962 SURELY, FIVE INDIVIDUAL VARIABLES DOTS REFER TO CONCEPTS, ARROWS STAND FOR EFFECTS
MISSINGCOEFFI-CIENTS .342 .321 .288 .313 DUNCAN’S INGREDIENTS OF ADVANCED MODELS FOR FOUR AGE GROUPS
DUNCAN COMPUTED FOUR MODELS TO TEST THE HYPOTHESIS THAT THE SHIFT FROM AGRICULTURE TO INDUSTRY WEAKENS THE TIE BETWEEN FATHER’S AND SON’S OCCUPATION AND STRENGTHENS THE BOND BETWEEN INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION AND OCCUPATION
TO BRING QAD INTO THE BOAT OF RAT, RAT OFFERS AN EXEMPLAR TO QAD: COLEMAN’S BOAT
COLEMAN, FOUNDATIONS, 1990, P. 6: ‘THE MAJOR PROBLEM FOR EXPLANATIONS OF SYSTEM BEHAVIOR BASED ON ACTIONS AND ORIENTATIONS AT A LEVEL BELOW THAT OF THE SYSTEM IS THAT OF MOVING FROM THE LOWER LEVEL TO THE SYSTEM LEVEL’ NOTE: NOT MOVING FROM THE HIGHER TO THE LOWER LEVEL
THE SOLUTION: COLEMAN’S BOAT TAKEN FROM HEDSTRÖM 2005, p. 115
COLEMAN’S BOAT APPLIED TO THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC LIFE CYCLE SOCIETAL EDUCATIONAL INEQUALITY SOCIETAL INCOME INEQUALITY INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION INDIVIDUAL INCOME Coleman, ‘Microfoundations and macrosocial behavior’, 1987
THIS COLEMAN BOAT IS NOT SEAWORTHY THE BOTTOM OF COLEMAN’S BOAT IS ALSO ITS ROOF THE BEST BOAT IS A RAFT
DUNCAN’S RELATION BETWEEN EDUCATION AND INCOME IS NOT ONLY AN INDIVIDUAL RELATION IT IS ALSO A MACRO PROPERTY: IT REFERS TO THE USA IN 1962 AND IT IS A VARIABLE SOCIETAL PROPERTY: IT CAN BE COMPUTED FOR OTHER PLACES AND TIMES
ONE WAY TO TURN A RELATION BETWEEN TWO MICRO PROPERTIES IN A MACRO PROPERTY INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION USA 1962 INDIVIDUAL INCOME USA 1962 INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION USA 1973 INDIVIDUAL INCOME USA 1973 INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION NETHERLANDS 1993 INDIVIDUAL INCOME NETHERLANDS 1993 INDIVIDUAL EDUCATION NETHERLANDS 2003 INDIVIDUAL INCOME NETHERLANDS 2003
ANOTHER WAY TO TURN A RELATION BETWEEN TWO MICRO PROPERTIES INTO A MACRO PROPERTY INFLOW AND OUTFLOW PERCENTAGES ODDS RATIOS FOR UNEQUAL COMPETITIVE OUTCOMES OCCUPATION FATHER OCCUPATION SON A RAFT WITH TWO MASTS AND TWO SAILS TO REPRESENT THE SHIFT FROM THE FIRST TO THE THIRD GENERATION OF MOBILITY STUDIES THE SAILS TAKE THE RAFT IN DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS AND MAKE FOR SEPARATE MACROQUESTIONS
RAT IS A PARADIGM ALTERNATIVE TO QAD, BUT WITHOUT A GESTALT SWITCH ONE ERROR OF COLEMAN’S BOAT IS THAT IT DRAWS LINES FOR EFFECTS BETWEEN CONCEPTS, INSTEAD OF LINES FOR DERIVABILITY BETWEEN FALSIFIABLE PROPOSITIONS THE OTHER ERROR IS THE GOAL OF MOVING FROM MICRO TO MACRO IT IS EASIER TO MOVE FROM MACRO TO MICRO AND STARTING WITH MACROPROBLEMS DOES THE TRICK
RAT UNTIL NOW HAS BEEN A PARADIGM LARGELY WITHOUT PUZZLES, AND EVEN MORE SO PUZZLES ABOUT SOCIETIES GOLDTHORPIAN RAT SEEKS TO EXPLAIN AN EMPIRICAL REGULARITY, WHICH IS NOT MUCH OF A PUZZLE GOLDTHORPE, ON SOCIOLOGY, 2000
ALSO, ANY GOOD THEORY EXPLAINS A HOST OF EMPIRICAL REGULARITIES UNTIL NOW RAT DOES NOT DO SO RATHER, RAT OFFERS SEVERAL EXPLANATIONS FOR ONE REGULARITY THAT IS TOPSYTURVYDOM
THESE TO-BE-EXPLAINED EMPIRICAL REGULARITIES SHOULD PERTAIN TO SOCIETIES IF THE REGULARITIES PERTAIN TO INDIVIDUALS ONLY, THEY FALL OUTSIDE THE SCOPE OF SOCIOLOGY’S QUESTIONS
NEED’S PAPER AND VAN TUBERGEN’S PAPER TAKE SOCIETIES AS THE UNITS ON WHICH QUESTIONS ARE BEING RAISED THESE QUESTIONS ALSO REFER TO THE VARIOUS MEMBERS OF THE POPULATIONS OF THESE SOCIETIES NEED AND VAN TUBERGEN RAISE MULTI-UNIT QUESTIONS
VAN TUBERGEN SEEKS TO EXPLAIN SEVERAL EMPIRICAL REGULARITIES NEED HAS A PUZZLE: WHY DO MORE LIBERAL ABORTION LAWS IN A COUNTRY NOT ALWAYS MAKE FOR MORE ABORTIONS?
THE SOCIOLOGY OF HEALTH HAS MANY PUZZLES OF NEED’S TYPE: COUNTRIES WHERE PERSONS HAVE THE MOST SEXUAL PARTNERS, ALSO HAVE THE LOWEST INCIDENCE OF SEXUALLY TRANSMITTED INFECTIONS AND UNPLANNED PREGNANCIES Wellings, The Lancet, November 4, 2006
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO MODEL’S PUZZLE THAT WHEREAS THE POPULATION OF THE NETHERLANDS IS RELATIVELY TOLERANT OF MIGRANTS, IN THE NETHERLANDS SELF-EMPLOYMENT OF MIGRANTS IS RELATIVELY LOW? Model, Martens, Silberman, Veenman, ‘Immigrant incorporation in France, England and the Netherlands’ paper presented at RC28 in Libourne in 2000
PROBLEMS PRECEDE THEORIES PUZZLES ARE ANCHORS FOR COLEMAN’S BOAT MACROPUZZLES MAKE IT POSSIBLE TO MOVE FROM MACRO- TO MICROTHEORIES THE HEAVIEST ANCHORS ARE MICRO-MACRO PARADOXES
CRIMINOLOGISTS ARE LESS CRIMINAL THAN THE REST, SO HOW IS IT POSSIBLE THAT MORE CRIMINOLOGISTS IN A COUNTRY GOES HAND IN HAND WITH MORE CRIME? DO CRIMINOLOGISTS THROUGH WISHY-WASHY ADVICE INCREASE THE CHANCES THAT FIRST-OFFENDERS BECOME RECIDIVISTS?
DO NOT THROW OUT MICRO-MACRO PARADOXES AS ‘ECOLOGICAL FALLACIES’ OR ‘AGGREGATIVE FALLACIES’ THINK UP HYPOTHESES ABOUT CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS Robinson, ‘Ecological correlations and behavior of individuals’, 1950
NEED AND VAN TUBERGEN HAVE HYPOTHESES WITH CONTEXTUAL PROPERTIES OF INDIVIDUALS CATHOLICS ARE MORE AGAINST ABORTION IN COUNTRIES WITH A HIGHER PERCENTAGE OF CATHOLICS IF THERE ARE MORE MIGRANTS IN A COUNTRY, THE PERCENT OF SELF-EMPLOYED AMONG MIGRANTS IS HIGHER
CONTEXTUAL EFFECTS AND THE COLEMAN BOAT MACRO-Y MACRO-X MICRO-X MICRO-Y COLEMAN’S BOAT DOES NOT NEED REINFORCEMENT OF THE HULL COLEMAN’S BOAT NEEDS ANCHORS, SAILS AND PEDALS FOR THE RAFT
SOME PARADIGMS IN SOCIOLOGY COMPRISE, APART FROM A HOST OF EXPLAINED REGULARITIES, ONE HIGHER-LEVEL AXIOM AND SEVERAL LOWER-LEVEL HYPOTHESES LENSKI CALLS THEM MULTI-LAYERED THEORIES Lenski, ‘Rethinking macrosociological theory’, 1988
TWO EXAMPLES OF MULTI-LAYERED THEORIES IN SOCIOLOGY OUTSIDE RAT: LENSKI-NOLAN ECOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONISM THE DURKHEIM-LAZARSFELD-HIRSCHI INTEGRATION HYPOTHESIS
RAT MAY BECOME MULTI-LAYERED, BUT RIGHT NOW IT OFTEN IS NOT RAT’S QUEST FOR MECHANISMS SIDETRACKS DIJKSTERHUIS, MECHANIZATION OF THE WORLD PICTURE, 1950, compare HEDSTRÖM AND SWEDBORG, SOCIAL MECHANISMS, 1998, p. 2, n. 4
A HIGHER-LEVEL HYPOTHESIS CORRECTS A LOWER-LEVEL HYPOTHESIS RAT DOES NOT ALWAYS APPRECIATE THIS Popper, ‘The aim of science’, 1957, p. 32 compare HEDSTRÖM, PRINCIPLES OF ANALYTICAL SOCIOLOGY, p. 31, law-covering explanations do not allow of exceptions, explanations by mechanisms do allow exceptions
MOVING FROM A LOWER-LEVEL HYPOTHESIS TO A HIGHER-LEVEL HYPOTHESIS AMOUNTS TO RE-INTERPRETING AN INHERENT PROPERTY AS A RELATIONAL PROPERTY Popper, ‘Aim of science’, 1957, p. 29
NEED HAD A MULTI-LAYERED THEORY IN 2004, VAN TUBERGEN IN 2005 BUT DID THEIR HIGHEST-LEVEL HYPOTHESIS CORRECT LOWER-LEVEL HYPOTHESES? De Graaf, Need & Ultee, ‘Leaving the church in the Netherlands, a comprehensive explanation of three empirical regularities’, 2004 F. VAN TUBERGEN, THE INTEGRATION OF IMMIGRANTS IN A CROSS-NATIONAL PERSPECTIVE, 2005
HOW TO GO BEYOND THE IDEA OF CONTEXTUAL PROPERTIES OF INDIVIDUALS AND MAKE MULTI-LAYERED THEORIES? DISTINGUISH TYPES OF CONTEXTUAL PROPERTIES AND SPELL OUT A THEORY COMPRISING HIGHER- AND LOWER-LEVEL HYPOTHESES AND AUXILIARY ASSUMPTIONS
WHICH AXIOMS AND AUXILIARY ASSUMPTIONS DOES THE RAT PARADIGM HAVE? BECKER, A TREATISE ON THE FAMILY, 1981, p. viii ‘THIS VOLUME USES THE ASSUMPTIONS OF MAXIMIZING BEHAVIOR, STABLE PREFERENCES, AND EQUILIBRIUM IN IMPLICIT OR EXPLICIT MARKETS’
BECKER HERE STATES THE AXIOM THAT INDIVIDUALS ARE RATIONAL AND THE AUXILIARY ASSUMPTION THAT THEY ACT ON MARKETS HOWEVER, NOT ONLY MARKETS COORDINATE INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR AUXILIARY ASSUMPTIONS ARE NOT ANCILLARY ASSUMPTIONS
RATIONAL CHOICE SOCIOLOGY IS A MISNOMER THE PROPER NAME IS MARKET SOCIOLOGY THIS IS NOW RECOGNIZED IN THE SOCIOLOGY OF RELIGION ALBERT, MARKTSOZIOLOGIE UND ENTSCHEIDUNGSLOGIK, 1967 Iannaccone, ‘Voodoo economics?’, 1995, p. 76: ‘… a[n] … application of rational choice [theory] - the religious market alternative to secularization theory - …’
HOW TO EXPAND MARKET SOCIOLOGY? RAT IS IN NEED OF A THEORY OF SOCIETY WHICH GOES BEYOND THE AUXILIARY ASSUMPTION THAT MARKETS ARE THE ONLY INSTITUTION COORDINATING HUMAN ACTION
HEILBRONER AND THE PRODUCTION OF INDIVIDUAL GOODS: * MARKETS HUNGER AVERSION * HIERARCHIES PAIN AVERSION * COMMUNITIES DERISION AVERSION FREE AFTER HEILBRONER, THE WORLDLY PHILOSOPHERS, 1953
SO, APART FROM MARKET SOCIOLOGY THERE IS ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIOLOGY AND CULTURAL SOCIOLOGY THE OPPOSITION BETWEEN RATIONAL ACTION AND NORM-GUIDED BEHAVIOR IS FALSE
VAN DEN DOEL AND THE PRODUCTION OF COLLECTIVE GOODS BY SOCIETAL POLITIES: * WISE BENEVOLENT DICTATOR * TWO INDEPENDENT PERSONS * A POPULATION MAKING UNANIMOUS DECISIONS * MAJORITY DECISIONS VAN DEN DOEL, DEMOCRACY AND WELFARE ECONOMICS, 1978