Andrew Abbott has been, for the last 20 years, elaborating what he terms a processual ontology for social life. It dovetails with his quest to find ways for the disciplines of history and sociology to be able to talk about the same subject matter, i.e., as different versions of looking at the same thing By a processual approach, Abbott means an approach that presumes that everything in the social world is continuously in the process of making, remaking, and unmaking itself (and other things), instant by instant. A processual approach begins by theorizing the making and unmaking of individuals, social entities, cultural structures, patterns of conflict as the social process unfolds in time.. In a word, the processual approach is fundamentally, essentially historical. In Abbott's take on it, all the micro elements with which the other approaches begin are themselves macrostructures in the processual approach. Their stability is something to be explained, not presumed. This book, then, sets out positively what sociology should look like, both in terms of method and in terms of the "substance of the social." The opening two chapters invite us into Abbott's particular brand of thinking, providing a processual account of individuals in Chapter 1, and then, in Chapter 2, showing how this processual account would deal with the classic theoretical-philosophical problem of "human nature" as an aspect of social thought. Chapter 3 gives a concrete example of how the sociological vision set out in Chapters 1 and 2 could be turned into an empirical research program. Then, chapters 4 and 5 venture out into "theory" again-first to argue, in chapter 4, for sociologists not to give in to the explanatory impulse at every turn, and second, in chapter 5, to make the argument that the concept of excess should be as important to our analyses as scarcity is. This latter chapter takes the argument about excess into the welcome land of analytic precision after all of the poetic whimsy of Nietzsche and Bataille. Chapters 6 and 7 take us to a vision of the "so what" question, which Abbott answers in terms of what sociological knowledge can be for. They deal with the criteria for achieving a good social life. Overall, the book cumulatively builds up a "vision" of what processual sociology looks like.
Industry Reviews
"Abbott's initial consolidation of his general theory, Processual Sociology, long in development, is such a welcome intervention. Reading the book is like opening the windows in an old, abandoned house, letting the wind sweep away the dust and cobwebs to reveal perfectly useable furnishings and foundation. Without hyperbole, the book should be required reading for every working sociologist, not least because processual sociology takes for granted, and is perfectly compatible with the ontological, structurational and liquid turns mentioned above. Indeed, process is the norm. . . . Many readers might be familiar with Abbott's work on 'linked ecologies', 'lyrical sociology' or 'outcomes' - each of which works as a stand-alone essay. But, the collection is undoubtedly greater than the sum of its parts, bringing into view the long gestation and effort the Chicagoan has been elaborating piece by piece for over twenty years."-- "Sociological Review"
"Andrew Abbott's new book is another masterful installment in what is now a long series of important works by one of the leading sociologists in the United States. The reader of Processual Sociology will find some very creative and useful ideas in its pages. Abbott's work, in brief, represents a most welcome contribution to modern sociology."-- "Contemporary Sociology"
"One cannot discuss contemporary sociology without mentioning the work of Andrew Abbott. . . .Processual Sociology well represents his admirable intellectual diversity [and] merits attention from practitioners within all domains of the discipline."-- "European Journal of Sociology"
"Varieties of Social Imagination is an experiment in rejecting these habits, and its rhetorical tactic of choice--decentralizing the author's history and identity--seems aimed at delivering a shock to our identity-obsessed twenty-first-century systems. The author constructs a female persona who reviews old works of social theory, with no one era, nationality, or gender favored."--Jessa Crispin "The Baffler"
"Processual Sociology's essays draw on a dizzying range of sources and examples, blended into a stunningly original, disruptive, and fecund analysis. The interrogation of such basic concepts as actor and outcome; the insights into the way that sequence and ecology frustrate causal reasoning; the effort to reconstitute macro-sociology on a radically micro-sociological foundation; and the reclamation of the moral dimension are just a few of this volume's important themes. Processual Sociology is both a good read and an ambitious and compelling challenge to the way that social scientists understand and carry out their craft."
-- "Paul DiMaggio, New York University"
"In Processual Sociology, Abbott makes clear that his ambition is to change sociology fundamentally. In elegant but also rigorous essays, he connects his seemingly disparate past writings and foreshadows a basic rethinking of social ontology. This starts from the historical character of individual life and moves on to connect historical demography to the nature of groups, the constant making and remaking of all cultural and social relationships, and the inextricable connection between the empirical and the moral. It is a brilliant book that makes one want to drop everything else to join in thinking about sociology's hardest, most basic questions."
-- "Craig Calhoun, director, London School of Economics"
