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Identity and Control How Social Formations Emerge 2e: How Social Formations Emerge (Second Edition)
 
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Identity and Control How Social Formations Emerge 2e: How Social Formations Emerge (Second Edition) (Paperback)

by Harrison C. White (Author)
3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 472 pages
  • Publisher: Princeton University Press; 2nd Revised edition edition (1 Jun 2008)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0691137153
  • ISBN-13: 978-0691137155
  • Product Dimensions: 22.9 x 15.5 x 2.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 251,075 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Review
Praise for the original edition: "[In this book] White has managed to cram a lifetime of singularly deep thinking about the social order that makes the best start yet on augmenting the economic understanding of man.
(David Warsh Boston Globe )

Praise for the original edition: "This work is unique in that it presents a fully formed structural theory of human behavior and organization from the ground up, including seminal terms and the directions in which future research should proceed.
(C. A. Pressler Choice )

Praise for the original edition: "[This book] deserves to be widely read and discussed. White attempts nothing less than a comprehensive theoretical synthesis of social scientific ideas.
(John Scott British Journal of Sociology )

Product Description

In this completely revised edition of one of the foundational texts of network sociology, Harrison White refines and enlarges his groundbreaking theory of how social structure and culture emerge from the chaos and uncertainty of social life. Incorporating new contributions from a group of young sociologists and many fascinating and novel case studies, Identity and Control is the only major book of social theory that links social structure with the lived experience of individuals, providing a rich perspective on the kinds of social formations that develop in the process. Going beyond traditional sociological dichotomies such as agency/structure, individual/society, or micro/macro, Identity and Control presents a toolbox of concepts that will be useful to a wide range of social scientists, as well as those working in public policy, management, or associational life and, beyond, to any reader who is interested in understanding the dynamics of social life.



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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Stimulating but deeply frustrating, 8 Mar 2009
Harrison White is one of the key figures in the development of empirical social network analysis. Originally published in 1992 Identity and Control is White's effort to develop a general social theory. As such he does not make use of the formal tools of network analysis (ie graph theory or sociographs) but you see can see how they have shaped his argument. The core argument is that identities (including those of 'individuals') emerge from networks. We are embedded in multiple networks of relationships and what we think of as our identities emerge from the tensions between these networks. What is true for individuals is also true of groups and institutions. Identities seek to exercise control. The book progresses from the micro level of individual ties up to successively larger scales of organization and includes a chapter on how to produce action in a network world.

The academic reviews of the first edition of Identity and Control largely made the same point: 'there is a lot of interesting stuff here but it's really hard to understand'. I'm afraid my reaction to the second edition is no different. Much of this is written as if it was White's private notebooks - he knows what he's saying but nobody else does. He develops his own vocabulary which leans towards the abstract. What is odd is that much of his argument is developed through discussion of empirical studies and you would think that these examples would make things clearer. The problem is that his reading of these studies incorporates them into his own theoretical scheme so that what you think these studies are doing is not what White thinks they are doing.

What did I like about this? Firstly, the effort to build a general sociology from the foundation of social networks is fascinating. This is essentially the point at which empirical American social science meets Deleuze and Guattari: difference is the origin of identity. Secondly, White is concerned with the question of how networks present themselves in real life rather than in network diagrams. This leads to an emphasis on an interpretive dimension; the ties that are important have stories about them; institutionalized networks have their own rhetorics. Thirdly, there is an interesting discussion of social styles.

Overall there is a lot here and it may be that on a rereading I will get more of what he is doing. If you are interested in the project of constructing a general sociology from social networks a better place to start is probably Stephan Fuchs, Against Essentialism: A Theory of Culture and Society (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard, 2001), this develops a similar argument in a more reader friendly way.



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