Theory of Fields, (Paperback)

In this bold and sweeping new work, Fligstein and McAdam make the first global contribution to sociological field theory since Bourdieu's Distinction. Finding order and turbulence not only in the semi-autonomous fields that others have investigated, but also in the complex interplay of social movements and the state, Fligstein and McAdam produce a vision that is theoretically insightful, empirically generative and will re-energize the quest for a fundamentalgrasp of the dynamics of large-scale social interaction." --John Levi Martin, University of Chicago"In this much-anticipated book, Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam bring their rich and influential strands of scholarly work together to develop a provocative account of how skilled individuals upset established routines and build new political and organizational fields. The core of their argument emphasizes on how people deploy resources, build connections, and forge new practices. In so doing, they place agency in a new and analytically tractable light. Thissignal accomplishment will be essential reading to all political and organizational scholars." --Walter W. Powell, Stanford University"In A Theory of Fields, Neil Fligstein and Doug McAdam provide a powerful synthetic approach to the analysis of interconnected "strategic action fields" that anchor interaction and meaningful membership. This conceptual language breaches distinctions among political, economic, and other sociologies to advance a compelling general approach to the most basic sociological questions of order and change. Fligstein and McAdam have accomplished the difficulttask of grappling with fundamental issues of social theory while advancing a program of social research that should both engage advanced scholars and inspire those earlier in their careers." --Elisabeth S.Clemens, University of Chicago"...an important work that has been at least two decades in the making. Fligstein and McAdam began forming the key insights of the book during their time at the University of Arizona in the 1980s and 1990s, mingling ideas from McAdam's work in social movement theory with Fligstein's political theory of markets. I hope that field theory will continue to evolve as a deductive theory for explaining how actors' relative positions shape their actions, how positionsevolve over time, and how changes in position create instability in fields. This book serves as a useful launch point for this type of analysis." --Administrative Science Quarterly