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Cited by 291Philosophy and History of ScienceQualitative Comparative Analysis ResearchCritical Realism in Sociology

Social mechanisms without black boxes

Boudon, Raymond·1998·Social Mechanisms
DOI 10.1017/cbo9780511663901.008
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Abstract

Introduction “Explaining” means “finding the causes. ” Explaining a social phenomenon means identifying its cause(s). In most cases, the explanation takes the form of a more or less complicated set of causal statements. The relations between the elements of the set can be more or less complex; they can be linear, recursive, include feedback loops, and so on. The set is what we usually call a “social mechanism” (SM). A SM is, in other words, the well-articulated set of causes responsible for a given social phenomenon. With the exception of typical simple ones, SMs tend to be idiosyncratic and singular (Boudon 1986). I am essentially interested here in the discussion of a basic distinction – namely, that some explanations of social mechanisms give the impression of being “final, ” while others do not. Thus the causal statement “A legal limitation of rents provokes a degradation of housing” arouses the further question “Why is that so? ” In that sense, it is not “final. ” The answer to this question is that the owners, who have the exclusive capacity of repairing the houses, are not incited to do so when this cost exceeds the benefit that they draw from renting their house. With this answer, we have the impression that the explanation is final: It arouses in our mind no additional question. We have this impression because the causes of the social mechanism lie in a behavior of the owners that we easily perceive as understandable: We understand very easily why the owners do what…

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  • Identity-protective cognition supplies cultural theory with a psychological mechanism rooted in individuals' perceptions of their own interests.

    “By supplying a psychological mechanism rooted in individuals' perceptions of their own interests, identityprotective cognition extricates cultural theory from the well known difficulties that plague functionalist accounts (Boudon, 1998;Balkin, 1998, pp. 176-80).”

    From Culture and Identity‐Protective Cognition: Explaining the White‐Male Effect in Risk Perception (2007) · cites this paper as Boudon, 1998

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Authors
Boudon, R.
Corresponding author
Boudon, Raymond
Venue
Social Mechanisms
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Published
1998-01-13
Pages
172-203
DOI
10.1017/cbo9780511663901.008
OpenAlex
W2281981375
Cited by
291
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 9 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 16 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 8 · 2018: 9 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 10 · 2015: 12 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 19
FWCI
39.22
Type
book chapter
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.cambridge.org/core/terms (unspecified, 4453 d)
Locations
Cambridge University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Philosophy and History of Science
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Critical Realism in Sociology
Keywords
social mechanisms, causal explanation, causal statements, social explanation, rent control, housing degradation, owner behavior, feedback loops

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