Bhaskar and Bunge on Social Emergence

This article discusses the theories of social emergence developed by Roy Bhaskar and Mario Bunge. Bhaskar's concept of emergent causal power is shown to be ambiguous, and some of the difficulties of his depth-relational concept of social emergence are examined. It is argued that Bunge's systemic concept of emergent property is not only different, but also clearer and more consistent than Bhaskar's concept of emergent causal power. Despite its clarity and consistency, Bunge's definition of the concept of emergent property is shown to be too broad and analytically imprecise for the purposes of an emergentist social ontology. It is argued that Bunge's systemic account of social emergence can b…

A Shift Towards Academic Capitalism in Finland

Academic capitalism is currently a widely studied topic amongst higher education scholars, especially in the United States. This paper demonstrates that the theory of academic capitalism also provides a fruitful perspective for analysing the restructuring of Finnish higher education since the 1990s, although with reservations. It will be argued that many reforms in Finnish universities since the 1990s, and especially in the early 2000s, have integrated Finnish universities more tightly with the new knowledge-based economy. As some recent empirical studies indicate, activities and practices related to academic capitalism remain, however, unevenly distributed among different disciplines, and …

Exploring the concept of causal power in a critical realist tradition

This article analyses and evaluates the uses of the concept of causal power in the critical realist tradition, which is based on Roy Bhaskar's philosophy of science. The concept of causal power that appears in the early works of Rom Harre and his associates is compared to Bhaskar's account of this concept and its uses in the critical realist social ontology. It is argued that the concept of emergence should be incorporated to any adequate notion of causal power. The concept of emergence used in Bhaskar and other critical realists' works is shown to be ambiguous. It is also pointed out that the concept of causal power should be analysed in an anti-essentialist way. Ontological and methodolog…

Traces of peasantry and post-socialism : researching realities with Ilkka Alanen

Yhteismitattomuus ja maailmojen moneus : tutkielma Thomas S. Kuhnin tieteenfilosofiasta

Studies on ontological and methodological foundations of critical realism in the social sciences

Kognitiivinen sosiologia kulttuurin ja toiminnan suhteen tutkimuksessa

Erilaiset kognitiota koskevat kysymyksenasettelut ovat viime vuosikymmeninä yleistyneet yhteiskuntatieteissä. Vaikka sosiologit eivät ole olleet tässä suhteessa edelläkävijöitä, sosiologian sisältä löytyy kuitenkin kasvava joukko kulttuurin ja kognition rajapinnasta kiinnostuneita tutkijoita. Artikkelissa esittelemme tieteidenvälisen kognitiivisen sosiologian suuntausta, jonka tavoitteena on sillan rakentaminen kulttuurisosiologian ja kognitiotieteiden välille. Tässä suuntauksessa on keskusteltu erityisestisiitä, millaisten kognitiivisten prosessien välityksellä kulttuuri vaikuttaa ihmisten toimintaan ja miten näitä prosesseja on mahdollista tutkia empiirisesti. Lähestymme kognitiivista sos…

Merkitys, historia ja ideologia : Karl Mannheimin tiedonsosiologian lähtökohtien tarkastelua

Two traditions of cognitive sociology : an analysis and assessment of their cognitive and methodological assumptions

Cognitive sociology has been split into cultural and interdisciplinary traditions that position themselves differently in relation to the cognitive sciences and make incompatible assumptions about cognition. This article provides an analysis and assessment of the cognitive and methodological assumptions of these two traditions from the perspective of the mechanistic theory of explanation. We argue that while the cultural tradition of cognitive sociology has provided important descriptions about how human cognition varies across cultural groups and historical periods, it has not opened up the black box of cognitive mechanisms that produce and sustain this variation. This means that its expla…