Concepts and categories : foundations for sociological and cultural analysis / Michael T. Hannan [and seven others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hannan, Michael T., author.

Series:

Middle range

The middle range

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Categorization (Psychology).

Concepts.

Social psychology.

Physical Description:

xiv, 314 pages ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Columbia University Press, [2019]

Summary:

Why do people like books, music, or movies that adhere consistently to genre conventions? Why is it hard for politicians to take positions that cross ideological boundaries? Why do we have dramatically different expectations of companies that are categorized as social media platforms as opposed to news media sites? The answers to these questions require an understanding of how people use basic concepts in their everyday lives to give meaning to objects, other people, and social situations and actions. In this book, a team of sociologists presents a groundbreaking model of concepts and categorization that can guide sociological and cultural analysis of a wide variety of social situations. Drawing on research in various fields, including cognitive science, computational linguistics, and psychology, the book develops an innovative view of concepts. It argues that concepts have meanings that are probabilistic rather than sharp, occupying fuzzy, overlapping positions in a "conceptual space." Measurements of distances in this space reveal our mental representations of categories. Using this model, important yet commonplace phenomena such as our routine buying decisions can be quantified in terms of the cognitive distance between concepts. Concepts and Categories provides an essential set of formal theoretical tools and illustrates their application using an eclectic set of methodologies, from micro-level controlled experiments to macro-level language processing. It illuminates how explicit attention to concepts and categories can give us a new understanding of everyday situations and interactions.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Concepts in Sociological Analysis p. 1

Part 1 Concepts and Spaces

Chapter 3 Semantic Space p. 37

Chapter 4 Concepts as Probability Densities in Semantic Space p. 47

Chapter 5 Conceptual Spaces: Domains and Cohorts p. 61

Chapter 6 Expanding Spaces to Compare Concepts p. 77

Chapter 7 Informativeness and Distinctiveness p. 83

Part 2 Applying Concepts

Chapter 8 Categories and Categorization p. 97

Chapter 9 Free Categorization p. 121

Chapter 10 Concepts, Perception, and Inference p. 141

Part 3 Bridges to Sociological Application

Chapter 11 Conceptual Ambiguity and Contrast p. 163

Chapter 12 Valuation p. 187

Part 4 Concepts in Social Interaction

Chapter 13 The Group Level: Conceptual and Extensional Agreement p. 217

Chapter 14 Social Inference and Taken-for-Grantedness p. 231

Chapter 15 Broadening the Scope of Application p. 253.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Format:

Online version: Hannan, Michael T., author. Concepts and categories

ISBN:

9780231192729

023119272X

OCLC:

1083703599