What is analytical sociology? And is it the future of sociology?

Abstract

During the last few decades a new approach in sociology has been developed, analytical sociology (AS). In the several descriptions from different authors, there are a couple of common core concepts. Analytical sociologists want to explain a social phenomenon by forming a specified mechanism. The mechanisms are entities and activities that are organized in a way that can produce social changes (Manzo, 2010). In this mechanism they differentiate between two analytical levels: the micro and the macro. Finally, they allow for the important consequences of the social structure and relationships between individuals by describing an aggregation process. In my opinion AS can play an important part in the future of sociology, because of the clear explanations it can provide for various social phenomena. Important is that researchers work on more consensus about the definitions of the core concepts of AS. This will make it easier to compare different articles about the same sociological topics, which will lead to a better understanding of these social phenomena. In this way more researchers will see the advantages of the approach and AS can become more important.