361 - Regular Session. Historical Sociology: Concepts Forged in History: Rethinking "Positivism," "Merit", "Women's Rights" and "Centralization"

Session Submission Type: Paper Session 100min

Description

The authors whose papers are gathered in this panel each analyze an historical case in order to interrogate a single concept. (1) The dominant view that positivism rises from industrial capitalism/society is questioned with this analysis that locates positivist thought in the economic failure of 19th century Italy (Riley, Emigh, and Ahmed). (2) The evolution of the idea of “merit” among New Haven firefighters shows it to be a contested concept, and that race and ethnicity shaped what it means to be a deserving worker (Ly). (3) Latching onto the rising momentum of human rights discourse, those seeking justice for Korean “Comfort Women” embraced the “Women’s rights are human rights” slogan, gaining recognition but losing the ability to frame the “comfort women” with any nuance (Kim). (4) Using historical semantics, “Centralization” is found to be a modernist category that after the French Revolution gained currency in understanding nation-state formation, but is now losing its dominant position in scholars’ understanding of nation-state formation (Santana-Acuña). Taken together, the papers reconstruct the ideas of positivism, merit, women’s rights, and centralization by drawing upon lessons learned from examinations of specific historical cases; as such, they stand as exemplars of empirical based theory building.

Sub Unit

• Historical Sociology

Session Organizer

• Vilna Francine Bashi Treitler, University of California Santa Barbara

Individual Presentations

• The Social Foundations of Positivism: The Case of Late Nineteenth Century Italy - Dylan John Riley, University of California, Berkeley; Patricia Ahmed, Sourth Dakota State University--University Center; Rebecca Jean Emigh, Univ of California-Los Angeles

• Merit at Work: Reconstructing Merit in New Haven Municipal Firefighting - Carolyn M. Ly, Augustana University

• Framing in South Korea’s Comfort Women Movement - Jee Jee Hyun Kim, University of Wisconsin Madison

Discussant

• Vilna Francine Bashi Treitler, University of California Santa Barbara