Theories of Social Order: A Reader

"This is the best reader ever assembled, with judiciously chosen excerpts from classic theory pieces, illustrative empirical applications, and elegant commentaries that bring out the causal mechanisms deployed in these selections. As proponents of the "lean and spare" school of sociology, Hechter and Horne strip sociology down to its unit ideas about the sources of social order, forcing students to engage with these ideas in their most elementary form. The end result: a vision of theory as a toolbox of explanatory mechanisms that provides the perfect antidote to theory conceived as a mind-numbing parade of theorists or mere exegesis and interpretation.”—David B. Grusky, Professor of Sociology and Director of the Center for the Study of Inequality at Cornell University
"This is the best reader ever assembled, with judiciously chosen excerpts from classic theory pieces, illustrative empirical applications, and elegant commentaries that bring out the causal mechanisms deployed in these selections. As proponents of the 'lean and spare’ school of sociology, Hechter and Horne strip sociology down to its unit ideas about the sources of social order, forcing students to engage with these ideas in their most elementary form. The end result: a vision of theory as a toolbox of explanatory mechanisms that provides the perfect antidote to theory conceived as a mind-numbing parade of theorists or mere exegesis and interpretation.” —David B. Grusky,Cornell University

Linking classical texts on social order with contemporary theoretical extensions and recent empirical research, Theories of Social Order emphasizes the role of causal mechanisms in explanations of real-world phenomena.



Please visit the Social Order textbook website to see supplemental materials for students and instructors.

Michael Hechter is Professor of Sociology at the University of Washington. Christine Horne is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Brigham Young University.