Handbook of Sociological Science

Edited by Klarita Gërxhani, Professor in Socio-Economics, School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Nan Dirk de Graaf, Professor of Sociology and Official Fellow, Nuffield College, University of Oxford, UK and Werner Raub, Professor of Sociology, Department of Sociology/ICS, Utrecht University, the Netherlands

‘In the Handbook of Sociological Science, one is treated to a wide range of examples of contemporary sociology at its best—and most rigorous. The Handbook’s scope is stunning: it covers diverse approaches and topics, including cultural capital, the gender division of labor in the home, rational choice theory, stochastic network modeling, analytical sociology, ethnography, sociogenomics, historical sociology, and evolutionary sociology, among others. Rigorous sociology (i.e., practicing sociological scientists) can be found everywhere.’

• Contents:INTRODUCTION1. Rigorous sociology 2Werner Raub, Nan Dirk de Graaf, and Klarita GërxhaniPART I RESEARCH PROGRAMS2. Order from chaos: sociology as a population science 21Michelle Jackson3. Analytical sociology 38Gianluca Manzo4. Computational approaches in rigorous sociology: agent-based computationalmodeling and computational social science 57Andreas Flache, Michael Mäs, and Marijn A. Keijzer5. Stochastic network modeling as generative social science 73Christian E.G. Steglich and Tom A.B. Snijders6. Rational choice sociology: heuristic potential, applications, and limitations 100Andreas DiekmannPART II NEW AND ONGOING DEVELOPMENTS IN SELECTED FIELDS7. Cultural capital and educational inequality: an assessment of the state ofthe art 121Mads Meier Jæger8. Integration in migration societies 135Frank Kalter9. Social networks: effects and formation 154Vincent Buskens, Rense Corten, and Werner Raub10. Gender inequality, households, and work 176Eva Jaspers, Tanja van der Lippe, and Marie Evertsson11. Validation strategies in historical sociology (and beyond) 196Ivan Ermakoff12. Rigorous ethnography 215Federico Varese13. Evolution, biology, and society 232Rosemary L. Hopcroft, Joseph Dippong, Hexuan Liu, and Rachel Kail14. Sociogenomics: theoretical and empirical challenges of integrating moleculargenetics into sociological thinking 250Melinda C. MillsPART III METHODS15. Causal inference with observational data 272Richard Breen16. Longitudinal designs and models for causal inference 287Markus Gangl17. Experimental sociology 309Klarita Gërxhani and Luis MillerPART IV RIGOROUS SOCIOLOGY IN ACTION: SHOWCASES18. Explaining educational differentials: towards a formal rational actiontheory 325Richard Breen and John H. Goldthorpe19. ‘Explaining educational differentials’ revisited: an evaluation of rigoroustheoretical foundations and empirical findings 356Rolf Becker20. Structural holes and good ideas 372Ronald S. Burt21. Network mechanisms in innovation: borrowing and sparking ideas aroundstructural holes 423Balazs Vedres22. Experimental study of inequality and unpredictability in an artificialcultural market 443Matthew J. Salganik, Peter Sheridan Dodds, and Duncan J. Watts23. Self-correcting dynamics in social influence processes 446Arnout van de RijtPART V FURTHER PERSPECTIVES24. The climate crisis: what sociology can contribute 475Dingeman Wiertz and Nan Dirk de Graaf25. Roots of sociology as a science: some history of ideas 493Thomas Voss26. How to increase reproducibility and credibility of sociological research 512Katrin Auspurg and Josef BrüderlIndex 528