IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/somere/v20y1992i4p456-480.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Historical Sociology and Time

Author

Listed:
  • RONALD AMINZADE

    (University of Minnesota)

Abstract

Historical sociologists have criticized their discipline for a tendency to ignore the temporal dimensions of social life, either by studying the correlates of outcomes rather than the character of temporally connected events or by treating events as surface manifestations of large-scale and long-term processes of change. These critiques have led to a reassessment of the value of narratives and to new methods for mapping historical sequences of events. Yet there has been relatively little discussion of the concepts needed to create a more event-centered historical sociology. This article explores the way in which four different concepts of time-duration, pace, trajectory, and cycle-have been used in recent historical social science. These concepts allow one to analyze the temporal characteristics of connected events that constitute long-term historical processes as well as the way in which actors understand and experience the temporal flow of events. They are most useful, the author argues when employed in a manner that is attentive to the understandings of social actors and the problematic reconstruction of the past. These concepts constitute building blocks for the construction of a more event-centered historical sociology.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronald Aminzade, 1992. "Historical Sociology and Time," Sociological Methods & Research, , vol. 20(4), pages 456-480, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:20:y:1992:i:4:p:456-480
    DOI: 10.1177/0049124192020004003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0049124192020004003
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0049124192020004003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Evelyne Huber Stephens, 1989. "Capitalist Development and Democracy in South America," Politics & Society, , vol. 17(3), pages 281-352, September.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Martin J. Murray, 2009. "Fire and Ice: Unnatural Disasters and the Disposable Urban Poor in Post‐Apartheid Johannesburg," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(1), pages 165-192, March.
    2. Erlinghagen, Sabine & Markard, Jochen, 2012. "Smart grids and the transformation of the electricity sector: ICT firms as potential catalysts for sectoral change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 895-906.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.

      More about this item

      Statistics

      Access and download statistics

      Corrections

      All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:somere:v:20:y:1992:i:4:p:456-480. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

      If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

      If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

      If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

      For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

      Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

      IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.