Table Of ContentUsable Social Science
Neil J. Smelser and John S. Reed
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
Usable Social Science
Usable Social Science
Neil J. Smelser and John S. Reed
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
University of California Press, one of the most distinguished
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University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2012 by The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Smelser, Neil J.
Usable social science / Neil J. Smelser and John S. Reed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn 978–0-520–27356–6 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Social sciences—Research. I. Reed, John S. (John Shepard), 1939–
II. Title.
H62.S545 2012
300.72—dc23 2012025107
Manufactured in the United States of America
21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
In keeping with a commitment to support environmentally responsible
and sustainable printing practices, UC Press has printed this book
on Rolland Enviro100, a 100% post-consumer fiber paper that is FSC
certified, deinked, processed chlorine-free, and manufactured with
renewable biogas energy. It is acid-free and EcoLogo certified.
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction: The Problem and Our Take on It 1
Part ONE. Arenas of Usability
1. Space and Time: Constraints and Opportunities 15
2. Some Dynamics of Cognition, Judgment, and Bias 53
3. Sanctions in Organizational and Social Life 90
4. Groups, Teams, Networks, Trust, and Social Capital 121
5. How Decisions Are Made 151
6. Organizations and Organizational Change 185
7. Economic Development and Social Change 229
8. Methods of Research and Their Usability 254
Part TWO. The Big Picture of Usability
9. Social Change, Social Problems, and Demands for Knowledge 293
10. The Production of Knowledge in the Social Sciences 315
References 355
Index 411
Preface
Bankers and sociologists seldom work together. Nor do they overlap very much
in their social circles. Most of them do not seem to mind this void; some probably
like it that way. As coauthors of this book, we are an exception to this principle of
noncontact. In this preface, we explain both this anomaly and the circumstances
of our collaboration.
Reed had been in banking not only for his entire career before retirement,
but also with the same organization. After earning a BS in economics at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1961, he joined Citibank as a trainee.
Over the years, he moved upward in responsibility, and was appointed chair-
man in 1984, a position that he held until his retirement in 2000. Unlike most
with such a career, however, he developed an interest in, appreciation of, and
commitment to the social sciences in general. He has always read extensively
in relevant subjects, and over the years he has sat on the boards of trustees of
many social-science organizations: the Russell Sage Foundation, the Center for
Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Spencer Foundation, the National
Bureau of Economic Research, and MDRC. Through these organizations, and by
residing in New York, Princeton, and the Boston area, he has accumulated many
social-science academics as friends.
Smelser has been an academic sociologist his whole career, and almost all of it
with the same organization, too—the University of California, Berkeley—serving
on its faculty from 1958 to 1994 and as professor emeritus since 2001. Yet the tower
in which he has lived is not made entirely of ivory. Over the years, he served in
many administrative and advisory positions at UC and was active organization-
ally and politically in its Academic Senate. Outside the university, he maintained
vii
viii Preface
involvements with many foundations, government agencies, and professional
groups (for example, he spent almost twenty years in an advisory capacity with
the American Board of Internal Medicine). For seven years (1994–2001), he was
a minor “CEO” as director of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral
Sciences at Stanford.
We met through our common membership on boards of trustees, overlapping
for many years on the Russell Sage and Stanford center boards. Reed was on the
board of trustees during Smelser’s entire term as director of the latter. We not
only survived that last relationship but over the years developed a strong and
increasing respect and friendship, and we and our families are close friends, even
though we reside at different ends of the country.
The idea of a synthetic project on the usability of social- and behavioral-
science knowledge germinated in Reed’s mind many years ago, but it was not
until 2005 (as we remember) that he approached Smelser with the suggestion
that he (Smelser) take a leadership role in such an enterprise. After a season of
stewing, Smelser agreed. As a first step, we decided to assemble a small group of
leading social scientists to evaluate the idea and to brainstorm about topical areas
to be covered. We met at Citibank in New York on September 14, 2007. Besides
ourselves, the group included Susan Fiske (psychology, Princeton University),
Robert Jervis (political science, Columbia University), Alan Krueger (econom-
ics, Princeton University), James Peacock (anthropology, University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill), Richard Scott (sociology, Stanford University), and
Stephen Stigler (statistics, University of Chicago). The meeting was extremely
productive, and though we did not designate an exact format or table of contents,
the topics designated by the chapter titles of this book were front and center in
our discussions. We would like to thank these colleagues for their role in the
enterprise.
At that moment we faced a crucial decision as to how to proceed. We knew
we wanted a book as the outcome of our efforts, but should it be an edited col-
lection of contributions from experts, or should it be the product of one or two
authors writing collaboratively? We debated for some time over the advantages
and disadvantages of each model. In the end, one factor turned out to be decisive
in our minds: on the basis of extensive experience, we—especially Smelser, with
a long history of editing collected contributions—had concluded that, despite
all advance coaching of the contributors and no matter how heavy-handed the
editors, all such collections always fall short of coherence, both intellectual and
stylistic. After a time, Smelser agreed to take the lead in the huge enterprise of
exploring, selecting, reading, and digesting research in the various social sciences
and to take responsibility for writing up the results. This commitment meant a
dedication, almost full time, for three years to this project.
At all stages, Reed was closely involved as coauthor. We met for sustained
