Explore the vast range of titles available.

\"This volume advances the research agenda of one of the most remarkable political thinkers of our time: Jon Elster. With an impressive list of contributors, it features studies in five topics in political and social theory: rationality and collective action, political and social norms, democracy and constitution making, transitional justice, and the explanation of social behavior. Additionally, this volume includes chapters on the development of Elster's thinking over the past decades. Like Elster's own writings, the essays in this collection are problem-driven, non-ideal inquiries of practical relevance. This volume closes with lucid comments by Jon Elster\"-- Provided by publisher.

This article aims to present what we regard as the Jon Elster’s main contribution to methodological concern in social science. Despite the vastness and complexity of his work, this is an introductory paper. Elster’s main concept is social mechanisms, which allows social sciences to produce theories with greater capacity of explanation. Before we get to methodological synthesis on Elster, we will explore some fundamental ideas that help us to understand the author’s stance. Thus, we approach methodological individualism, rational choice theory, causal explanations, then we will dedicate some pages to the social mechanisms concept, presenting definitions, examples, a typology, his main contributions for social sciences and some limitations of his work. We conclude that the social mechanisms concept seems rich and usable in the field of social sciences research. Despite of its high level of sophistication, the main concept has some limitations, as we can see in the final section.

Background Refugee status poses a significant burden on mental health, largely because of existential hardships. Moreover, mental health problems hinder access to employment. Supporting refugees’ entry into the labor market is a common element of local integration policies and is shaped by structural conditions. However, beyond environmental and regulatory factors, individual variables—such as a willingness to accept any job (submissiveness) or caregiving responsibilities—also influence labor market participation. Methods In our study, which was conducted in late 2022 with 400 Ukrainian refugees in Poland and 407 in Hungary—at an early stage of their displacement—we applied a quantitative cross-sectional survey design with stratified sampling and a random-route procedure to obtain samples with features of representativeness. Results In both samples, labor market participation was associated with lower depressive symptoms, and the proportion of active individuals was similar between the two samples. Submissiveness was not strongly or consistently correlated with depressive symptoms but was positively correlated with activity levels in both countries. Among the active individuals, the proportion of employed individuals—especially those with caregiving responsibilities—was greater in Poland. We attribute this to structural differences in family support and education characteristics. Our findings are interpreted through Elster’s Rational Choice Theory, which explains behavior through perceived justification and individual preferences. Conclusions The study revealed a relationship between the labor market status of Ukrainian refugees residing in Poland or Hungary and their mental health, knowledge of support institutions, and submissiveness in the labor market. In both countries, refugees who were inactive were more likely to feel depressed. While in Hungary, awareness of support did not favor labor market participation, in Poland, the correlation between awareness of support and employed labor market status was positive. In Poland and Hungary, a high level of submissiveness was a factor that favored labor market participation, whereas having dependents functioned differently in the two countries. In contrast, in Poland, a high level of submissiveness was a positive factor of labor market participation, whereas in Hungary, it was a negative factor of having employed status.

Adaptive preferences are both a central justification and continuing problem for the use of the capability approach. They are illustrated here with reference to a project examining the choices of young people who had rejected higher education. Jon Elster, Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum have all criticised utilitarianism on the grounds that a focus on preference-satisfaction fails to acknowledge the human tendency to adapt preferences under unfavourable circumstances and that self-assessments of well-being are therefore likely to be distorted by deprivation. Elster’s addresses preference deformation through the sour grapes phenomenon and retroactive rationalisation. Sen and Nussbaum are more concerned with adaptation as self-abnegation. The capability approach developed by Sen and Nussbaum seeks to address the problem of adaptive preferences by taking into account not only what individuals value but what they have reason to value. However, clear distinctions need to be made between adaptations to the means of achieving well-being and adaptations to its ends. If Elster’s formulations are to be used in capability assessments, they need to articulate with the relative weightings given to relevant functionings and freedoms. This enables a more nuanced understanding of adaptive preferences that can account for the subtleties of the constraints they place upon individual freedoms.

Philosophers of science have had little to say about 'middle-range theory' although much of what is done in science and of what drives its successes falls under that label. These lectures aim to spark an interest in the topic and to lay groundwork for further research on it. 'Middle' in 'middle range' is with respect to the level both of abstraction and generality. Much middle-range theory is about things that come under the label 'mechanism'. The lectures explore three different kinds of mechanism: structural mechanisms or underlying systems that afford causal pathways; causal-chain mechanisms that are represented in what in policy contexts are called 'theories of change' and for which I give an extended account following the causal process theory of Wesley Salmon; and middle-range-law mechanisms like those discussed by Jon Elster, which I claim are —and rightly are— rampant throughout the social sciences. The theory of the democratic peace, that democracies do not go to war with democracies, serves as a running example. The discussions build up to the start of, first, an argument that reliability in social (and natural) science depends not so much on evidence as it does on the support of a virtuous tangle of practices (without which there couldn't even be evidence), and second, a defence of a community-practice centred instrumentalist understanding of many of the central basic principles that we use (often successfully) in social (and in natural) science for explanation, prediction and evaluation. Los filósofos de la ciencia han tenido poco que decir acerca de la \"teoría de rango medio\", aunque gran parte de lo que se hace en la ciencia y de lo que impulsa sus éxitos cae bajo esa etiqueta. Estas conferencias tienen como objetivo despertar el interés en el tema y sentar las bases para la ulterior investigación al respecto. \"Medio\" en \"rango medio\" hace referencia al nivel de abstracción y generalidad. Gran parte de la teoría de rango medio trata sobre cosas que caen bajo la etiqueta de \"mecanismo\". Las conferencias exploran tres tipos diferentes de mecanismos: mecanismos estructurales o sistemas subyacentes que permiten vías causales; mecanismos de cadena causal que están representados en lo que en contextos de política se denominan \"teorías de cambio\" y sobre los cuales doy una explicación extensa siguiendo la teoría del proceso causal de Wesley Salmon; y mecanismos de ley de rango medio como los discutidos por Jon Elster, que afirmo son, y con razón son, rampantes en todas las ciencias sociales. La teoría de la paz democrática, que las democracias no van a la guerra con las democracias, sirve como un ejemplo en funcionamiento. Las discusiones se desarrollan hasta el comienzo de, primero, un argumento según el que la confiabilidad en las ciencias sociales (y naturales) no depende tanto de la evidencia como del apoyo de una maraña virtuosa de prácticas (sin las cuales ni siquiera podría haber evidencia), y en segundo lugar, una defensa de una comprensión instrumentalista, centrada en la práctica comunitaria, de muchos de los principios básicos centrales que usamos (a menudo con éxito) en ciencias sociales (y naturales) para explicar, predecir y evaluar.

Why do oppressive social and political systems persist for as long as they do? Critical theorists posit that the oppressed are in the grip of ideology or false consciousness, leading them voluntarily to accept their servitude. An objection to this explanation points out that we have no account of how the ruling class’s ideology comes to dominate. One common reply says that the ruling class’s ideology comes to dominate because they control major organizations such as schools, churches, and news agencies. This response is seriously flawed, I argue. I then explore an alternative, neglected answer: The ruling class’s ideology dominates because believing it is good for the oppressed. After sketching some details, I explore the implications of this account for critical theory as a research program.

The main purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of Luc Boltanski’s account of the multifaceted relationship between mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries in modern societies. It is striking that, although this important aspect of Boltanski’s oeuvre has been commented on by several scholars, his principal contributions to this area of investigation have been largely overlooked and received hardly any serious attention by researchers in the humanities and social sciences. This paper is an attempt to fill this noticeable gap in the literature. Thus, rather than covering the entire breadth and depth of Boltanski’s writings, the paper will focus on the valuable insights his work offers into the relationship between mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries. To this end, the analysis is divided into two parts. The first part comprises an overview of Boltanski’s central theoretical contributions to our understanding of mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries. The second part offers some critical reflections on important issues arising from Boltanski’s examination of the relationship between mysteries, conspiracies, and inquiries – especially with regard to its limitations and shortcomings.

O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar ao leitor o que consideramos as principais contribuições de Jon Elster ao plano metodológico das ciências sociais. Dada a complexidade e extensão da obra do autor, trata-se de um texto introdutório. O conceito destacado pelo autor para que as ciências sociais produzam teorias com maior poder explicativo é o de mecanismos. Antes de encontrar a síntese metodológica de Elster, o artigo passa por algumas ideias fundamentais para compreendermos o posicionamento do autor. Assim, aborda-se de forma breve as ideias gerais do individualismo metodológico; da teoria da escolha racional; da explicação causal; para, por fim, dedicar-se ao conceito de mecanismo, apresentando definições, exemplos, uma tipologia, suas principais contribuições para as ciências sociais e algumas limitações. De forma geral, a ideia de mecanismos causais parece bastante profícua e operacionalizável em pesquisas da área das ciências sociais. Entretanto, apesar do alto nível de sofisticação, o conceito apresenta também limitações, como veremos nas conclusões do artigo.

Eating the Empire: Food and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain (London: Reaktion Books, 2020). Footnotes * Books for review may be sent to Jennifer Thorn, Reviews Editor, Eighteenth-Century Studies, Saint Anselm College, 100 Saint Anselm Drive #1784, Manchester, NH 03102 Barbot de Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne. Eating the Empire: Food and Society in Eighteenth-Century Britain (London: Reaktion Books, 2020). Butler, Richard J. Building the Irish Courthouse and Prison: A Political History, 1750–1850 (Cork: Cork Univ.

The analysis of decision-making is such an important issue that usually we can find different approaches from sociology, psychology, management, and other areas of the humanities. This article aims to analyze, through a quantitative approach, the possible relationship between the hyper-rationalism behavior of certain decision-makers when faced with a practical dilemma and some personality factors raised by the Inventory of 16 Factors of Cattell. The analyzed data from a group of graduate students, showed that there are personality characteristics with a tendency to generate defects in rationality, affecting not only the decision, but even the act itself and its optimality.