Microsociologies, Mezosociologies, and Macrosociologies: Scale, Level, Integration

Session Submission Type: Paper Session (90 minute)

Description

From interaction rituals to histories of empire, Sociologists move across scales of analysis, with varying ways of theorizing from the scalar. Ethnomethodologists and affect theorists often generalize from a conversation or the interior life of individuals toward the structural., while world-systems scholars and theorists of empire abstract from global dynamics to explain organizational and human behavior. Across the discipline, methodological orientations — grounded theory, abductive analysis, extended case method, and hypothesis testing — also raise questions of level, inference, and generalization. This raises several key questions. How are sociological findings at one scalar level translated into general theoretical insights about society at large? What rationales do sociologists use to defend their choice of scale? Do they treat scale as inherent to the object of study, as a theoretical commitment, or as a methodological convenience? What would a sociology of scale look like? What analytic moves, conceptual tools, or methodological practices allow sociologists to connect across scales - moving from the micro to the macro, or vice versa, without collapsing one into the other?

This session welcomes papers that engage with these questions and also serve as examples of analytic moves that attempt to theorize across scales.

Sub Unit

• Theory Section / Microsociologies, Mezosociologies, and Macrosociologies: Scale, Level, Integration

Presider

• Youbin Kang, City College of New York

Individual Presentations

• A Relational and Multi-Scalar Analysis of Neoliberal Philanthropy and Think Tank Advocacy in Latin America - Tomas Gold, University of Southern California

• Between Global and Grassroots: Transnational Conjunctures and Politics of Scales in South Korean Ecofeminist Organizing - Hanee Choi, Rutgers University-New Brunswick

• Dilemma Based Ethnography: Theorizing Micro-Macro Connections in Field Research - Neil Gong, University of California-San Diego

• Reflexive Methods Across Micro- and Macro-Scales: Extended Case Method and World-Systems Analysis in Dialogue - Rishi Awatramani, University of Southern California; Corey R. Payne, University of Richmond

• Spatial Inequality: Linking Sociology’s Cross-national, Subnational, and Urban Traditions - Linda Lobao, The Ohio State University; Gregory Hooks, McMaster University

Session Organizer

• Youbin Kang, City College of New York