THE SOCIAL FORMATION
(THE SOCIAL 'SCIENCES')

The Social Formation is a term, popularised by Louis Althusser, which embraces the cultural, economic, legal, political and social structures of a given community.  A society (from the Latin socius, member, friend or ally) is a self-reproducing grouping of individuals occupying a particular territory which may have its own distinctive institutions and culture.  The term 'society' normally refers to the organizations and institutions arising from the interaction of the members of a particular group of humans. 

The Social Sciences, so called, are devoted to the systematic study of all aspects of the societies which humans inhabit.  They include Anthropology, Economics, Management Studies, Political Science, and Sociology.  Other sub-disciplines like Education and History are sometimes also considered social sciences, while some disciplines like Psychology are located in either the humanities or the social sciences, depending on curricular emphases.

---

SUB-PAGES

Sub-Fields:

• Culture:
  • Philosophy of Culture
  • Cultural Theory
    • Popular Culture (Cultural Studies)
• Economics (inc. Management):
  • Philosophy of Economics
  • Economic Theory
• History:
  • Philosophy of History
  • Historical Theory (History and Theory)
• The Law:
  • Philosophy of Law
  • Legal Theory (Critical Legal Studies, Law and Literature, Sociology of Law)
• Politics:
  • Political Philosophy
  • Political Theory
• Society:
  • Philosophy of Sociology
  • Sociological Theory

Sub-Topics:

• Nationalism
• Social Philosophy (Philosophy of the Social Sciences)
• Social Theory

Related Pages:

• Literary Historicism

Feminist:

• Feminist Perspectives on Culture
• Feminist Perspectives on Economics
• Feminist Perspectives on the Law
• Feminist Perspectives on Politics
• Feminist Perspectives on Society

Post-colonial:

• Post-colonial Perspectives on Culture
• Post-colonial Perspectives on Economics
• Post-colonial Perspectives on the Law
• Post-colonial Perspectives on Politics
• Postcolonial Perspectives on Society

ASSOCIATIONS

• American Social Science History Association

• Association for Legal and Social Philosophy

• Cambridge Social Ontology Group

• International Association for Critical Realism

• International Social Theory Consortium

• Internationale Vereinigung für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie [International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy]

• North American Society for Social Philosophy

• Radical Philosophy Association

• Social Science Research Council

• UK Association for Legal and Social Philosophy

CONFERENCES

2008:

• Collective Intentionality VI: Social Change, University of California, Berkeley, July 8-11
• Methodological Problems of the Social Sciences, Center for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Tilburg University, May 7
• Andre Gunder Frank's Legacy of Critical Social Science, University of Pittsburgh, April 11-13
• Seventh European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), University of Lisbon, February 27-March 1

2007:

2006:

• The Social Sciences and Democracy: a Philosophy of Science Perspective, Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science, Ghent University, Belgium, September 28-30

• Fifth International Conference on Collective Intentionality, Department of Social and Moral Philosophy, University of Helsinki and Philosophical Society of Finland, August 31-September 2

• Social Ontology and Constitutive Attitudes, Department of Social Sciences and Philosophy, University of Jyväskylä, Department of Philosophy, University of Turku, and Department of Social and Moral Philosophy, University of Helsinki, August 29-30

• Sixth European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), University of Amsterdam,

2005:

2004:

• Rationality, Action, and Value in the Philosophy of Social Science, Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, New School for Social Research, November 18-20

• Fifth European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), University of Berlin,

2003:

2002:

• Fourth European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), University of the Hague,

2001:

2000:

Annual:

• European Social Science History Conference (ESSHC), International Institute of Social History (IISH), Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences

COURSES

• Arizona State University: Science and Interpretation in Social Theory (Herrigel)

• Bristol University: Philosophy of Social Science ()

• Calvin College: Philosophy of the Social Sciences (Smith)

• Cardiff University: Perspectives in the History of Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy (Attfield, Sedgwick, Wilkins)

• University of Chicago: Science and Interpretation in Social Theory (Herrigel)

• Earlham University: Philosophy of Social Science (Guven)

• University of Exeter: Philosophy of the Social Sciences 1 (Pleasants and Guala)
• Ohio State University: Contemporary Political Analysis: an Introduction to Qualitative Methods (Hopf)
• Peking University: Western Philosophy of Social Science (Little)
• Pfeiffer College: Social Theory (Ridener)
• St. Andrews University: Philosophy of Social Science (Rennger, et al.)
• University of Sussex: Philosophy of Science and Social Scientific Research Practice (Outhwaite)

• Valdosta State University: Social and Political Philosophy (James)

• Warwick University: Philosophy and Social Theory (Fuller)
• University of Wisconsin, Madison: Philosophy of Social Science Reading Course (Kritzer)

JOURNALS

• Analyse und Kritik

• Caribbean Journal of Social Sciences

• Contretemps

• disClosure: a Journal of Social Theory

• Distinktion: Scandinavian Journal of Social Theory

• divide: Literary Annual of Creative Responses to Contemporary Social Questions

• Filosofia e Questioni Pubbliche

• Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy: On-Line Journal of Moral, Political and Legal Philosophy

• Journal of Social Philosophy

• Philosophy and Social Criticism or here

• Philosophy of the Social Sciences

• Res Publica: Journal of Legal and Social Philosophy

• Situation Analysis

• Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture

• Social Philosophy and Policy

• Social Research

• Social Semiotics (contact Professor Terry Threadgold, Cardiff University ThreadgoldT2@cf.ac.uk)

• State of Nature: an Online Journal of Radical Ideas

• Studies in Social and Political Thought

• Theoria

• Theory, Culture and Society

• Theory and Society: Renewal and Critique of Social Theory

SOURCES: PRIMARY

Off-Line:

• Anthologies:

  • Garner, Richard, and Andrew G. Oldenquist, eds.  Society and the Individual: Readings in Political and Social Philosophy.  Thomson Learning, 1990.

  • Giddens, Anthony, and Jonathan Turner, eds.  Social Theory Today.  Cambridge: Polity, 1987.

  • Harrington, Austin, ed.  Modern Social Theory.  Oxford: OUP, 2005.
  • Lervert, Charles, ed.  Social Theory: Multicultural and Classic Readings.  Boulder, CO: Westview, 1993.  
  • Martin, Michael, and Lee McIntyre, eds.  Readings in the Philosophy of Social Science.  Cambridge: MIT Press, 1994.
  • Sterba, James, ed.  Social and Political Philosophy: Classical Western Texts in Feminist and Multicultural Perspectives.  Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, .
  • Stewart, Robert M., ed.  Readings in Social and Political Philosophy.  Oxford: OUP, 1996.

• Selected Individual Works:

  • Cooke, Maeve.  Re-Presenting the Good Society.  Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2006.
  • Benton, Ted, and Ian Craib.  Philosophy of Social Science: the Philosophical Foundations of Social Thought.  London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001.

  • Braybrooke, David.  Philosophy of Social Science.  Prentice Hall, 1986.

  • Fay, Brian.  Contemporary Philosophy of Social Science: a Multicultural Approach.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1996.

  • Hillel-Rubin, David.  "The Philosophy of the Social Sciences."  Philosophy 2: Further Through the Subject.  Oxford: OUP, 1998.  320-469.

  • Hollis, Martin.  The Philosophy of Social Science: an Introduction.  Cambridge: CUP, 1994.

  • Kincaid, H.  Philosophical Foundations of the Social Sciences.  Cambridge: CUP, 1996.
  • Little, Daniel.  Varieties of Social Explanation: an Introduction to the Philosophy of Social Science.  Boulder: Westview, 1990.
  • Macfarlane, Alan.  The Origins of English Individualism: the Family, Property, and Social Transition.  Oxford: Blackwell, 1978.
  • Potter, Garry.  The Philosophy of Social Science:New Perspectives.  London: Longman, 1999.
  • Rosenberg, A.  The Philosophy of Social Science.  Boulder: Westview, 1988.
  • Roth, P.  Meaning and Method in the Social Sciences.  Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1987.

On-Line:

• Archives:

  • Universitédu Québéc, Chicoutimi: Classiques des sciences sociales

• Book Series:

  • Humanity: Contemporary Studies in Philosophy and the Human Sciences

• Selected Individual Works:

  • Little, Daniel:

    • Beyond Positivism: Toward a Methodological Pluralism for the Social Sciences

    • Evidence and Objectivity in the Social Sciences Social Research 60.2 (1993)

SOURCES: SECONDARY

Off-Line:

• Anthologies:

  • Connerton, Paul, Jack Goody, Geoffrey Hawthorn, John Dunn, eds.  How Societies Remember.  Cambridge: CUP, 1989.

  • Psarros, Nikos, and Katainka Schulte-Ostermann, eds.  Facets of Sociality.  Frankfurt: Ontos, 2006.

  • Steinmetz, George M., ed.  The Politics of Method in the Human Sciences: Positivism and its Epistemological Others.  Durham: Duke UP, 2005.

• Selected Individual Works:

  • Bowie, Norman E., and Robert L. Simon.  The Individual and the Political Order: an Introduction to Social and Political Philosophy.  Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, .
  • Little, Daniel.  Varieties of Social Explanation.

On-Line:

• Walls, David: Dialectical Social Science

• Wikipedia Encyclopedia:

  • Social Sciences

  • Social Theory

  • Society

UNIVERSITY PROGRAMMES / RESEARCH CENTRES / RESEARCH PROJECTS

Australasia:

• Australia:

  • Australian National University: Research School of the Social Sciences: Social and Political Theory Programme

  • University of Melbourne: Ashworth Programme in Social Theory

  • University of Technology, Sydney: Centre for Social Theory and Design

Canada:

• University of Alberta: Social and Political Thought

• Trent University: Centre for the Study of Theory, Culture and Politics
• University of Victoria: Interdisciplinary Graduate Programme in Cultural, Social, and Political Thought (MA)

• York University: 

  • Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought (MA and PhD)
  • Undergraduate Programme in Social and Political Thought (BA)

Caribbean:

• University of the West Indies:

  • Cave Hill: Department of Government, Sociology and Social Work

  • Mona: Department of Sociology, Psychology and Social Work

  • St. Augustine: Department of Behavioural Sciences

Europe:

• Belgium:
  • Katholieke Universiteit Leuven: Institute of Philosophy: Centre for Ethics, Social and Political Philosophy

• Eire:

  • National University of Ireland, University College Dublin: Centre for Equality Studies

• France:

  • Sciences Politiques

• UK:

  • University of Cambridge: Faculty of Social and Political Studies

  • Cardiff University: School of English, Communication and Philosophy: MA in Ethics and Social Philosophy

  • University of Edinburgh: School of Social and Political Studies

  • University of Essex: Centre for Theoretical Studies in the Humanities and Social Sciences

  • University of London: 

    • London School of Economics and Political Science:

      • Department of Philosophy, Logic and Scientific Method:

        • Centre for the Philosophy of Natural and Social Sciences

        • MSc in Philosophy of the Social Sciences

  • Loughborough University: Department of Social Sciences

  • Staffordshire University: MA in Social and Cultural Theory

  • University of Sussex: 

    • Centre for Critical Social Theory

    • Centre for the Individual and Society (SCIS)

    • Graduate Programme in Social and Political Thought

  • University of Warwick: Department of Sociology:

    • MA in Social and Political Thought

    • Social Theory Centre

USA:

• University of California,

  • Davis: Center for History, Society, and Culture

• University of Chicago: 

  • Center for Contemporary Theory
  • Committee on the History of Culture
  • Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture
  • Committee on Social Thought

• George Washington University: Program in the Human Sciences

• University of Kentucky: Committee on Social Theory

• University of Oregon: Center for Critical Theory and Transnational Studies

• Pennsylvania State University: Social Thought Program

• University of South Florida: Center for Social and Political Thought

• University of Virginia: Political and Social Thought Program

WWW GATEWAYS

• University of Amsterdam: SocioSite: Social Science Information System

• Benschop, Albert: Social Science Information System

• Intute: Social Sciences [formerly SOSIG]

• Roberts, Andrew: Society and Science

• Social Sciences Virtual Library

PHILWEB was last updated: August 29, 2007

PHILWEB is edited by Richard L. W. Clarke

Please direct all queries here
 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial No Derivative Works 3.0 License

Shibboleths: a Journal of Comparative Theory

Encyclopaedia of Theory
 

This site will always be a work in progress as a result of which pages will be found at various stages of completion.