The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Logics of History: Social Theory and Social Transformation
Overview
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the citing paper
“These chains of events have cascading effects in that they both break and reproduce existing social formations - they are 'sequences of occurrences that result in the transformation of structures' (Sewell 2005: 227; also see: Mahoney and Schensul 2006).”
From Within and Beyond the “Fourth Generation” of Revolutionary Theory (2016) · cites this paper as Sewell 2005
Citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 501–600 of 1,003
Negotiating Relationships in Transition: War, Famine, and Embodied Accountability in Mozambique
Igreja, V. (2019) · Comparative Studies in Society and History · doi:10.1017/s0010417519000264 · Cited by 7
“Unlike transitional justice specialists, anthropologists and sociologists take for granted the idea that “different cultural orders have their own modes of historical action, consciousness, and determination” (Sahlins 1985: 34; see Sewell 2005).”
BackgroundInfluentialAdler, E. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108325615.010
The Petition as Event: Colonial Bombay, circa 1889–1914
Kidambi, P. (2019) · Modern Asian Studies · doi:10.1017/s0026749x17000555 · Cited by 7
Fisheries’ collapse and the making of a global event, 1950s–1970s
Ferguson-Cradler, G. (2018) · Journal of Global History · doi:10.1017/s1740022818000219 · Cited by 7
Critical Events and the Funding of Indigenous Organizations
Ramos, H., & Young, J. (2018) · Journal of Canadian studies · doi:10.3138/jcs.2017-0026.r2 · Cited by 7
“We interpret data with an eventful approach, which looks at historical context through a lens of ebbs and flows, recognizing that some events have a bigger impact on societies and their political economy than others (Sewell 2005, 1996; Wood et al. 2017).”
Method4 Political Ecology and the Event: Calusa Social Action in Early Colonial Entanglements
Thompson, V. D., Thompson, A. D. R., & Worth, J. (2018) · Archeological Papers of the American Anthropological Association · doi:10.1111/apaa.12099 · Cited by 7
Lash, R., Kuijt, I., Alonzi, E., Chesson, M., & Burke, T. (2018) · Antiquity · doi:10.15184/aqy.2018.13 · Cited by 7
Changing the Narrative: The New History That Was and Is to Come
de Vries, J. (2017) · Journal of Interdisciplinary History · doi:10.1162/jinh_a_01160 · Cited by 7
Beyond disciplinary boundaries: Leveraging complementary perspectives on global labour
Schulze-Cleven, T., Herrigel, G. B., Lichtenstein, N., & Seidman, G. W. (2017) · Journal of Industrial Relations · doi:10.1177/0022185617713042 · Cited by 6
“Simultaneously, historians have recognized that they could productively draw from social scientists’ proclivity for abstraction and desire to build structural accounts of social life (Sewell, 2005; Stinchcombe, 1978).”
BackgroundNavon, D. (2017) · Theory and society · doi:10.1007/s11186-017-9286-2 · Cited by 7
The Imperial Origins of Social and Political Thought
Jahn, B. (2017) · doi:10.1108/s0198-871920170000032002 · Cited by 7
“Despite this intimate connection, however, the constitution of separate academic disciplines 'utterly transformed the Edenic intellectual landscape' (Sewell, 2005, p. 2).”
BackgroundInfluentialAn archeology of moments: Christian conversion and practice in a medieval household cemetery
Zoëga, G., & Bolender, D. J. (2017) · doi:10.1177/1469605316673927 · Cited by 7
“Rows were a common feature of early cemeteries throughout the medieval world and may have served to aid in the management of the cemetery and the commemoration of individual graves (Gilchrist and Sloane, 2005; Williams, 2006).”
InfluentialChinese and world cultural models of developmental hierarchy
Dorius, S. F. (2016) · doi:10.1177/2057150x16670832 · Cited by 7
Path Dependence and the Emergence of Common Schools: Ohio to 1853
Neem, J. (2015) · Journal of Policy History · doi:10.1017/s0898030615000378 · Cited by 7
An eventful politics of difference and its afterlife: Chittagong frontier, Bengal, c. 1657–1757
Choudhury, R. (2015) · doi:10.1177/0019464615588424 · Cited by 7
Collective Violence and the Agrarian Origins of South African Apartheid, 1900–1948 by John Higginson
Higginson, J. (2014) · doi:10.1017/cbo9781107110243 · Cited by 7
The Politics of Temporality: An Analysis of Leftist Youth Politics and Generational Contention
Vaillant, G. G. (2012) · Social movement studies · doi:10.1080/14742837.2012.723367 · Cited by 7
“…role of alterity has been mostly studied in the social movement literature in terms of its spatial dynamics (Simmel, 1950; Schwartz, 1976; Bourdieu, 1985; Tilly 1994a; Miller, 2000), its temporal dynamics are usually taken as constant (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998; McAdam & Sewell, 2001; Sewell, 2005).”
BackgroundTraveling the Silk Road on a Virtual Globe: Pedagogy, Technology and Evaluation for Spatial History
Mostern, R., & Gainor, E. (2013) · Digital Humanities Quarterly · doi:10.63744/8ua7xe6ycpz3 · Cited by 7
““Eventful” spatial history needs to account for contingency as well as structure [Sewell 2005].”
BackgroundMorning dew on the Web in Australia: 1992–1995
Clarke, R. (2013) · Journal of Information and Technology · doi:10.1057/jit.2013.11 · Cited by 7
“The academic discipline of history features the use of primary sources wherever possible, accurate chronology and careful construction of narrative (Sewell, 2005).”
BackgroundTang, C. (2013) · Social Science Information · doi:10.1177/0539018412466633 · Cited by 7
Gender Ideology and Religion: Does a Masculine Image of God Matter?
Whitehead, A. L. (2012) · Review of religious research · doi:10.1007/s13644-012-0056-3 · Cited by 7
Women and Mass Consumer Society in Postwar France (review)
Pulju, R. (2011) · doi:10.1017/cbo9780511976568 · Cited by 7
Brown, V. (2010) · Small Axe A Caribbean Journal of Criticism · doi:10.1215/07990537-2009-054 · Cited by 7
The Historical Logic of Logics of History
Riley, D. (2008) · Social science history · doi:10.1017/s014555320001083x · Cited by 7
“Much of what is most interesting and useful in them concerns the logic of historical explanation.1 Yet Sewell’s book also pro‑ vides a theory of historical change based on the combination of two types of human practice: language and labor (Sewell 2005: 360).”
BackgroundInfluentialChristina, S. I. R. Y., Ali‐Khan, C., & Siry, D. (2014) · SensePublishers eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-6209-563-2 · Cited by 14
European Workers: Meaning-Making Beings
Daniel, C., Arzoglou, E., & Lamont, M. (2011) · doi:10.1108/s0277-2833(2011)000022b011 · Cited by 7
Li, Y., & Whitworth, K. (2025) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009636582 · Cited by 6
Four Temporalities: Toward a Typology of Narrative Forms
Newman, S. J. (2024) · Sociological Theory · doi:10.1177/07352751241269126 · Cited by 6
“Sewell (2005) points to a third alternative.”
Clustered Vulnerabilities: The Unequal Effects of COVID-19 on Domestic Violence
Sweet, P. L. (2024) · American Sociological Review · doi:10.1177/00031224241241078 · Cited by 7
“To capture this, we need a framework that is processual and “eventful” (Sewell 2005), attentive to histories of social disadvantage as well as moments of transformation or amplification.”
d'Alfonso, L. (2023) · Journal of Ancient Near Eastern History · doi:10.1515/janeh-2023-0001 · Cited by 6
Adaptive agency: the satire genre and the motives behind its use in the era of social media in China
Xi, Y.-P. (2023) · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · doi:10.1057/s41599-023-01768-x · Cited by 6
Making Sense of Hollywood’s Digital Transformation: The Birth and Shifts of Digital Agenting
Roussel, V. (2023) · Sociologie du travail · doi:10.4000/sdt.43395 · Cited by 6
Neighborhood Cultural Heterogeneity and the College Aspirations of Low-Income Students of Color
Iloh, C. (2023) · Children, Youth and Environments · doi:10.7721/chilyoutenvi.28.1.0009 · Cited by 6
“Change within social structures is virtually impossible (Ortner, 1984; Sewell, 2005).”
BackgroundHow journalists internalize news practices and why it matters
Ryfe, D. (2023) · Journalism · doi:10.1177/14648849221074420 · Cited by 6
“Though a number of prominent sociologists argue that strong coupling, and thus strong socialization, is the norm (e.g., Alexander, 2003; Bourdieu, 1990), a moment’s reflection suggests that a weak coupling may be more common (e.g., Sewell, 2005).”
BackgroundGarcía, C. T., & Castro, Á. C. (2021) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009042826.010 · Cited by 11
Powietrzyńska, M., Noble, L., O’Loughlin-Boncamper, S., & Azeez, A. (2021) · Cultural Studies of Science Education · doi:10.1007/s11422-021-10035-x · Cited by 6
“In exemplifying the ripple effect of this work and the porous nature of social fields (Sewell, 2005), Arsh offers a window into the intention and impact of mindfulness for everyday living and transformation.”
BackgroundThe Rise of Majority Rule in Early Modern Britain and Its Empire
Bulman, W. (2021) · doi:10.1017/9781108909648 · Cited by 6
0saber necessário à prática docente na humanidade digital
Mometti, C. (2021) · doi:10.37001/remat25269062v17id482 · Cited by 6
Asserting disadvantaged communities’ deliberative agency in a media-saturated society
Curato, N. (2020) · Theory and society · doi:10.1007/s11186-020-09421-1 · Cited by 6
“As William H. Sewell puts it, ‘a capacity for agency is as much a given for humans as the capacity for respiration’ (Sewell 2005, p. 144).”
BackgroundDemil, B. (2019) · Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal · doi:10.1002/sej.1335 · Cited by 11
Peker, E. (2020) · Social science history · doi:10.1017/ssh.2019.48 · Cited by 6
Within and Beyond the Fourth Generation
Lawson, G. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108697385.003
Affective Naturalization: Practices of Citizenship Conferment
Kalm, S. (2019) · Alternatives Global Local Political · doi:10.1177/0304375419847385 · Cited by 20
“It is lodged in the memory of those whom it affects and therefore irrevocably alters the situation in which it occurs” (Sewell, 2005, pp. 6–7).”
BackgroundWhat is a Flourishing Congregation? Leader Perceptions, Definitions, and Experiences
Thiessen, J., Wong, A., McAlpine, B., & Walker, K. D. (2018) · Review of religious research · doi:10.1007/s13644-018-0356-3 · Cited by 6
Cogenerated understandings of mindfulness-based breathing in elementary mathematics classrooms
Higgins, J., & Eden, R. (2018) · doi:10.1080/00220671.2017.1396438 · Cited by 6
“Our aim in conducting this research is to promote social benefits and wellbeing for teachers and students in classroom life through drawing attention to teaching and learning as emotional work (Ritchie, Tobin, Hudson, Roth, & Mergard, 2011) and teaching as an emotional endeavor (Sutton, MudreyCamino, & Knight, 2009).…”
Leading through ritual: Ceremony and emperorship in early modern China
Islam, G., & Keliher, M. (2017) · Leadership · doi:10.1177/1742715016685917 · Cited by 7
“The problem of historical change and contingency is taken up generally by Sewell (2005) and Unger (1987), and in historical study by Goldstone (2000) and Padgett and Powell (2012).”
BackgroundLanguages in Libya: building blocks of national identity and soft power tools
Baldinetti, A. (2018) · The Journal of North African Studies · doi:10.1080/13629387.2017.1391947 · Cited by 12
Kay, E., & Ramos, H. (2017) · American Behavioral Scientist · doi:10.1177/0002764217744132 · Cited by 8
Becoming Indigenous in Haiti, from Dessalines to La Revue Indigène
Perry, A. (2017) · doi:10.1215/07990537-4156762 · Cited by 6
The “new history of psychology” and the uses and abuses of dichotomies
Watrin, J. (2017) · doi:10.1177/0959354316685450 · Cited by 6
“This relative silence may in part be due to historians’ traditional avoidance of theoretical discussions (see, e.g., Sewell, 2005).”
BackgroundDecolonizing the Borderland: Wichita Frontier Strategies
Perkins, S. M., Drass, R. R., & Vehik, S. (2016) · doi:10.1353/gpq.2016.0049 · Cited by 6
Amat, A., Zapata, C., Alexakos, K., Pride, L. D., Paylor-Smith, C., & Hernandez, M. (2016) · doi:10.1007/s11422-016-9767-z · Cited by 6
Multiple Europes, multiple modernities: Conceptualising the plurality of Europe
Delanty, G. (2016) · Comparative European Politics · doi:10.1057/cep.2015.33 · Cited by 6
WHAT I BELIEVE: STRUCTURE AND THE PROBLEM OF MACROSOCIALITY
Beck, R. (2014) · doi:10.1179/sea.2014.33.2.006 · Cited by 6
“Schemas are transposable, in that we can use the same schemas in a potentially broad range of situations (Sewell 2005:141).”
BackgroundInnovation after the French Revolution, or, Innovation Transformed: From Word to Concept
Godin, B. (2014) · doi:10.7227/r.17.2.6 · Cited by 6
“Second, words articulate new possibilities (Sewell, 2005: 245-51).”
BackgroundBEYOND TOCQUEVILLE: A PLEA TO STOP “TAKING RELIGION SERIOUSLY”
Chappel, J. (2013) · Modern Intellectual History · doi:10.1017/s1479244313000279 · Cited by 6
Baehr, P. (2013) · Sociological Theory · doi:10.1177/0735275113489561 · Cited by 10
“Theorists of “the event” will find much that is pertinent in Aron’s work and will have no difficulty articulating his contribution to those of contemporary authors on that topic (Abbott 1992; Sahlins 1991; Sewell 2005:197-270; WagnerPacifici 2010).”
BackgroundProblems, Crises, Events and Social Change: Theory and Illustrations
Nathanson, C. (2009) · Sociological Research Online · doi:10.5153/sro.1974 · Cited by 6
A sociologia histórica : rumos e diálogos atuais
Monsma, K., Salla, F., & Teixeira, A. (2018) · doi:10.20336/rbs.245 · Cited by 6
“Poucos dias depois do fato, a importância simbólica da tomada da Bastilha foi reconhecida pela Assem-bleia Nacional, que reconheceu e legitimou o novo conceito de revolução popular legítima (SEWELL, 2005, pp. 232-244).”
BackgroundInfluentialTobin, K., Alexakos, K., Malyukova, A., & Gangji, A.-K. H. (2017) · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-43353-0_12 · Cited by 6
Frames of Eastern Europe and security threats in Lithuania
Janušauskienė, D., & Mamaiev, D. (2026) · Sociology Review · doi:10.1177/00380261261423711 · Cited by 5
Rethinking Word Similarity: Semantic Similarity through Classification Confusion
Zhou, K., Gao, H.-S., Chen, S., Edelstein, D., Jurafsky, D., & Chen, S.-N. (2025) · North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.05704 · Cited by 5
“7 Our findings are consistent with historians’ hypothesis that the meaning of revolution in the early years of the French Revolution is most closely aligned with the concept of the people and this gradually shifts as the revolution continues (Sewell Jr. and Sewell, 2005; Edelstein, 2012).”
Coe, C., & Glaser, A. (2025) · Anthropology of Work Review · doi:10.1111/awr.12278 · Cited by 5
Affective Ruptures: A Pragmatist Approach
Lampredi, G. (2024) · Emotion Review · doi:10.1177/17540739241259557 · Cited by 6
“Some scholars focused their attention on the sociological and anthropological importance of the event (Abbott, 2001, 2016; Sewell, 2005; Wagner-Paci fi ci, 2017; White, 2008), in which time, structures, actions, and the creation of meaning are intertwined.”
Feinstein, Y. (2024) · Theory and society · doi:10.1007/s11186-024-09553-8 · Cited by 5
Perolini, M. (2022) · Journal of Intercultural Studies · doi:10.1080/07256868.2022.2146662 · Cited by 14
“For example, Welcome United, a coalition of grassroots organisations, framed the right to stay as necessary to terminate the fear, insecurity, and uncertainty associated with deportability, a situation where migrants live under the constant threat of deporta-tion (De Genova 2002, 2005).”
BackgroundHistoriography and the excavation of nascent business venturing
Lent, W. V., Hunt, R. L., & Lerner, D. A. (2022) · Small Business Economics · doi:10.1007/s11187-022-00691-w · Cited by 5
Rethinking the Methodological Foundation of Historical Political Science
Shi, Q. (2022) · Chinese Political Science Review · doi:10.1007/s41111-021-00200-6 · Cited by 7
Power from Below in Premodern Societies
Fontijn, D. R., Thurston, T. L., & Fernández-Götz, M. (2021) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781009042826 · Cited by 34
Nación y masculinidades: reflexiones desde la historia
Andreu-Miralles, X. (2021) · Cuadernos de Historia Contemporánea · doi:10.5209/chco.78174 · Cited by 5
Global challenges need attention now: educating humanity for wellness and sustainability
Tobin, K., & Alexakos, K. (2021) · Cultural Studies of Science Education · doi:10.1007/s11422-021-10080-6 · Cited by 5
“Our work with cogen is consistent with William Sewell Jr’s idea of culture being experienced as patterns having thin coherence together with ever present contradictions (Sewell, 2005).”
BackgroundResultClot-Garrell, A. (2021) · Sociology · doi:10.1177/00380385211011573 · Cited by 5
“Simmel’s (1997) spatial analytical tools of proximity and distance are fruitful for further outlining the physically bounded character of total places and the relationality that configures their outer limits.”
BackgroundØversveen, E. (2021) · Social Theory & Health · doi:10.1057/s41285-021-00163-3 · Cited by 5
“As few attempts have been made to define precisely what structures are and how they operate, the term is often used in indeterminate and contradictory ways (Scott 2018; Sewell 2005).”
BackgroundInfluentialThe Structure of Protest Cycles: Inspiration and Bridging in South Korea’s Democracy Movement
Chang, P. Y., & Lee, K. (2020) · Social Forces · doi:10.1093/sf/soaa130 · Cited by 8
Interregna: Time, Law, and Resistance
Chua, L. J. (2020) · Law & Social Inquiry · doi:10.1017/lsi.2020.45 · Cited by 10
Durou, G. (2019) · Critical Sociology · doi:10.1177/0896920519830752 · Cited by 8
Boundaries, bridges, analogies and bubbles: Structuring the past in Israeli mnemonic culture
Zerubavel, Y. (2020) · doi:10.1080/13531042.2020.1815982 · Cited by 5
Youth and activism in Algeria. The question of political generations
Hadj-Moussa, R. (2019) · Journal of North African Studies · doi:10.1080/13629387.2019.1665289 · Cited by 5
Mackay, R. (2019) · Cambridge University Press eBooks · doi:10.1017/9781108632720 · Cited by 5
Church, Space, and Pluralism: Two Puritan Settlements, Territory, and Religious Tolerance
Stabler, S. D. (2018) · Sociology of Religion · doi:10.1093/socrel/sry030 · Cited by 5
Labour Constitutions and Market Logics
Knegt, R. (2017) · Social and Legal Studies · doi:10.1177/0964663917749027 · Cited by 5
“On the articulation of discourses as generators of historical change, see Sewell (2005).”
BackgroundIntellectual property and industrialization: legalizing hope in economic growth
Ford, L. R. (2017) · Theory and Society · doi:10.1007/s11186-017-9285-3 · Cited by 10
Footbinding, Industrialization, and Evolutionary Explanation
Brown, M. J. (2016) · Human Nature · doi:10.1007/s12110-016-9268-5 · Cited by 5
International legal structuralism: a primer
Desautels-Stein, J. (2016) · International Theory · doi:10.1017/s175297191500024x · Cited by 5
“(Brett 2004; Sewell 2005).”
Faut-il réinitialiser l'histoire ?
Hunt, L., & Heudre, A. (2015) · Annales: Histoire, Sciences Sociales · doi:10.1353/ahs.2015.0044 · Cited by 5
Outside Structures: Smithian Sentiments and Tardian Monads
Santana-Acuña, Á. (2015) · doi:10.1007/s12108-015-9264-y · Cited by 5
Cultural coherence in early modern England: The invention of contract
Biernacki, R. (2014) · doi:10.1057/ajcs.2014.9 · Cited by 5
‘Modernity’ and the Making of Social Order in Twentieth-Century Europe
Sweeney, D. (2014) · Contemporary European History · doi:10.1017/s0960777314000137 · Cited by 5
Chasing Down the Mundane: The Near East with Social Historical Interest
Fleming, D. (2014) · doi:10.1515/janeh-2013-0002 · Cited by 5
“In addition to being ambiguous or polysemous, ‘social’ is beset by a peculiar vagueness, even mysteriousness, that most of these other terms lack” (Sewell 2005: 324).”
BackgroundInfluentialPomp and power, performers and politicians: The California theatre state
Essary, E. H., & Ferney, C. (2013) · doi:10.1057/ajcs.2012.9 · Cited by 5
Socialisme et internationalisme
Dogliani, P. (2009) · doi:10.3917/cj.191.0011 · Cited by 5
Hijacked by Hope: Dynamics of Mission Drift and Identity Dilution in a Nonprofit Organization
Cappelen, S. M., & Strandgaard, J. (2021) · Revista de Administração de Empresas · doi:10.1590/s0034-759020210104 · Cited by 5
Tobin, K. (2016) · doi:10.1007/978-94-6300-570-8_1 · Cited by 5
Fertility Change and Variation
Johnson-Hanks, J. A., Bachrach, C., Morgan, S., & Kohler, H. (2011) · Springer eBooks · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-1945-3_3 · Cited by 5
Philosophy of Chemistry: Growth of a New Discipline
Baird, D., Scerri, E. R., & McIntyre, L. (2006) · doi:10.1007/978-94-017-9364-3 · Cited by 5
Quality over Quantity of Attention! Towards a Qualitative Attention‐Based View
Seidl, D., Splitter, V., & Whittington, R. (2026) · Journal of Management Studies · doi:10.1111/joms.70143 · Cited by 4
Jacobsen, M., Davis, J., & Wang, X.-Y. (2025) · Higher Education · doi:10.1007/s10734-025-01467-3 · Cited by 4
Hepp, A. (2025) · Berliner Journal für Soziologie · doi:10.1007/s11609-025-00549-4 · Cited by 4
“Transformation bezeichnet einen strukturellen Wandel, der sich in herausgehobenen Ereignissen verdichten kann (Sewell 2005).”
Metadata
- Authors
- Sewell Jr., W. H.
- Venue
- University of Chicago Press eBooks
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 2005
- OpenAlex
- W4235763390
- Cited by
- 1,410
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 116 · 2025: 59 · 2024: 60 · 2023: 65 · 2022: 75 · 2021: 99 · 2020: 120 · 2019: 139 · 2018: 91 · 2017: 79 · 2016: 82 · 2015: 54 · 2014: 88 · 2013: 55 · 2012: 38
- FWCI
- 95.24
- Type
- book
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- University of Chicago Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History › Philosophy, History, and Historiography
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Philosophy and Historical Thought
- Social Sciences › Education › Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy
- Keywords
- historical reasoning, philosophy of history
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review