Analytic Novelty, Cross-Context ‘Simmel-arities,’ and the Formal Sociological Imagination: Simmelian Concept-Driven Cultural Sociology

• In Event: The Simmelian Turn in Cultural Sociology: The Culturalist Allure of Formal Sociology

Abstract

In this presentation, I elaborate on the epistemological features of a Simmelian concept-driven cultural sociology that prioritizes the geometric and formal dimensions of social reality. I highlight the key features of this approach as 1) emphasizing analytic novelty and contextual breadth over site novelty and contextual depth, 2) employing theory-driven data development rather than data-driven theory development, and 3) focusing on cross-case formal “Simmelarities” (Vaughan, 1998:7) between disparate substantive cases rather than emphasizing cross-case differences. I discuss methodological and theoretical dimensions of a Simmelian concept-driven cultural sociology and demonstrate the analytic payoffs through illustrative examples from sociological research, including examples from my own research program in the cultural cognitive dynamics of unmarkedness and markedness and in the strategic deployment of identity attributes as interactional resources.

Author

• Wayne H. Brekhus, University of Missouri