Inthisinvitationto“concept-driven“sociology,defyingtheconventionalsplitbetween“theory“and“methodology“(aswellasbetween“quantitative“and“qualitative“research),EviatarZerubavelintroducesayetunarticulated“Simmelian“methodoftheorizingspecificallydesignedtorevealfundamental,oftenhiddensocialpatterns.Insistingthatitcanactuallybetaught,heexaminesthetheoretico-methodologicalprocess(revolvingaroundtheepistemicandanalyticalactsoffocusing,generalizing,“exampling,“andanalogizing)bywhichconcept-drivenresearcherscandistillgenericsocialpatternsfromtheculturally,historically,anddomain-specificcontextsinwhichtheyencounterthemempirically.Disregardingconventionallynotedsubstantivevariabilityinordertouncoverconventionallydisregardedformalcommonalities,GenerallySpeakingdrawsoncross-cultural,cross-historical,cross-domain,andcross-levelanalogiesinanefforttorevealformalparallelsacrossdisparatecontexts.Usingnumerousexamplesfromculturallyandhistoricallydiversecontextsandawiderangeofsocialdomainswhilealsodisregardingscale,Zerubavelthusintroducesapronouncedlytranscontextual“generic“sociology.
CONCEPT THEORY RESEARCH SPEAKING CULTURAL CROSS HISTORICALLY
