Presently the world is undergoing tremendous social, cultural and economic transformation. For sociologists, the challenge is arriving at a sound mapping of this tumultuous world stage. In this book, the contributing authors consider solidarity as a cognitive problem of basic science. They examine how solidarity is produced and reproduced, how it is related to social processes, and how such processes can be formalized and create conditions for productively studying their properties. Mathematical models and representations are presented by the authors as a coherent set of tools for understanding many social phenomena.

Presently the world is undergoing tremendous social, cultural and economic transformation. For sociologists, the challenge is arriving at a sound mapping of this tumultuous world stage.
In this book, the contributing authors consider solidarity as a cognitive problem of basic science. They examine how solidarity is produced and reproduced, how it is related to social processes, and how such processes can be formalized and create conditions for productively studying their properties. Mathematical models and representations are presented by the authors as a coherent set of tools for understanding many social phenomena.

Generating Images of Stratification is a self-contained presentation of a theoretical research program that deals with a significant explanatory problem relating to social inequality and that constructs generative theoretical models in doing so. In more detail:
-Self-contained presentation - In respect to the background sociological facts and theoretical ideas and also the formal methods the book provides clear and simple accounts accompanied by examples.
- A theoretical research program - The emphasis is on theory development, involving a series of theoretical models constructed within a core framework of principles and methods.
- Deals with a significant explanatory problem relating to social inequality - We know from research that how people perceive the stratification system of a society depends upon their position in that system. So the problem is: What process generates this regularity and thereby explains empirical generalizations about the social structuration of images?
- Constructs generative theoretical models - The book is an extended presentation of "generative theory" in sociology, a formal method of producing effective theoretical explanations. Generating Images of Stratification is of interest to mathematical sociologists and formal theorists in sociology; sociologists interested in social stratification; methodologists, both in sociology and in other fields; philosophers of social science; and theoretical scientists and mathematicians who are interested in applying their analytical tools to social science topics.

Generating Images of Stratification is a self-contained presentation of a theoretical research program that deals with a significant explanatory problem relating to social inequality and that constructs generative theoretical models in doing so. In more detail:
-Self-contained presentation - In respect to the background sociological facts and theoretical ideas and also the formal methods the book provides clear and simple accounts accompanied by examples.
- A theoretical research program - The emphasis is on theory development, involving a series of theoretical models constructed within a core framework of principles and methods.
- Deals with a significant explanatory problem relating to social inequality - We know from research that how people perceive the stratification system of a society depends upon their position in that system. So the problem is: What process generates this regularity and thereby explains empirical generalizations about the social structuration of images?
- Constructs generative theoretical models - The book is an extended presentation of "generative theory" in sociology, a formal method of producing effective theoretical explanations. Generating Images of Stratification is of interest to mathematical sociologists and formal theorists in sociology; sociologists interested in social stratification; methodologists, both in sociology and in other fields; philosophers of social science; and theoretical scientists and mathematicians who are interested in applying their analytical tools to social science topics.

This book sets out a generative structuralist conception of general theoretical sociology; its philosophy, its problems, and its methods. The field is defined as a comprehensive research tradition with many intersecting subtraditions that share conceptual components. The focus is on formalization and unification as processes that can help advance the state of theory today. An integrative philosophy of the field is set out in terms of a process worldview, with a focus on generativity in explanation and a conception of the structure of theories as hierarchical meaning control systems. This philosophy is implemented in two phases. In the first phase, Professor Fararo defines the core problems of theoretical sociology in the context of setting out and illustrating the logic of a nonlinear dynamical social systems framework. A critical analysis of the outcome of this phase then leads, in the second phase, to formal treatments of action principles and structural analysis. A variety of traditions are drawn upon to treat theoretical problems of order and integration, as well as to examine searchingly problems of formalization and unification in theoritical sociology.

This book sets out a generative structuralist conception of general theoretical sociology; its philosophy, its problems, and its methods. The field is defined as a comprehensive research tradition with many intersecting subtraditions that share conceptual components. The focus is on formalization and unification as processes that can help advance the state of theory today. An integrative philosophy of the field is set out in terms of a process worldview, with a focus on generativity in explanation and a conception of the structure of theories as hierarchical meaning control systems. This philosophy is implemented in two phases. In the first phase, Professor Fararo defines the core problems of theoretical sociology in the context of setting out and illustrating the logic of a nonlinear dynamical social systems framework. A critical analysis of the outcome of this phase then leads, in the second phase, to formal treatments of action principles and structural analysis. A variety of traditions are drawn upon to treat theoretical problems of order and integration, as well as to examine searchingly problems of formalization and unification in theoritical sociology.

Fararo studies general theoretical sociology as a time-extended tradition with three phases: classical, postclassical, and recent. Employing a process philosophical approach, the author seeks to examine these three phases in an effort to provide a synthesis of the theories that seek to lay the foundations of theoretical sociology. The author especially focuses on the work of Talcott Parsons and George Homans, two contemporary theorists whose common aspiration was to forge a theoretical foundation for sociology that would serve to unify and integrate all theories growing out of sociological research in much the same way that the theory of evolution guides and integrates all other biological theories.

To begin, the author provides a history and overview of the key classical theoretical frameworks from the perspective of process philosophy, which he applies to all three phases of the study. Fararo then carefully analyzes two major postclassical bodies of general theory, namely the evolving and intertwined frameworks of Parsons and Homans from their early theories of social systems to their later divergent perspectives on foundation and synthesis in sociological theory. Finally, the discussion turns to the recent phase of general theoretical sociology, where more recent foundation strategies -- rational choice theory and generative structuralism -- are analyzed in relation to the postclassical phase of the tradition. This important and sophisticated new work is essential for all those interested in sociological theory in particular and sociology in general.