Status, Power, and Legitimacy presents methodological,
theoretical, and empirical essays by Joseph Berger and Morris
Zelditch, Jr.--two of the leading contributors to the Stanford
tradition in the study of micropro-cesses. This three-part volume
brings together major contributions to the development of this
tradition, in addition to a number of newly written essays
published here for the first time. Berger and Zelditch integrate
the essays and relate them to a larger body of theory and research
as they explore the importance of a generalizing orientation in
sociology. Their view of theory as flux and process, the blending
of social process with theory-building, produces a picture of the
social world in line with the great tradition of George Herbert
Mead, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel.
Status, Power, and Legitimacy explores the relation between the
scope of a theory and testing, applying, and developing it; the
relation between abstract, general theories and empirical
generalizations; and how to use an understanding of this relation
to construct theories that are neither historically nor culturally
bound. In the first part, Berger and Zelditch discuss strategies of
theory construction, the development of abstract, general theories
of social processes, and the different ways in which theories grow.
Status processes are the focus of the second part, which includes:
the formation of reward expectations; the role of status cues in
interaction; the evolution of status expectations; and the
application of status characteristics theory to male-female
interaction. Lastly, the authors dissect power and legitimacy: the
effect of expectations on power; the legitimation of power and its
effect on the stability of authority; and legitimation under
conditions of dissensus.
This volume is a fine theoretical effort of great depth and
breadth. Berger and Zelditch review the background of each paper,
place the new concepts and principles introduced by each paper in
context and examine subsequent research generated by the paper.
They carve out new research areas in the social world of class,
status, power, and authority. This volume will be of interest to
those in the fields of sociology and, in particular, social
theory.
General
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