Social Complexity and the Micro-Macro Link

Abstract

This article analyses the problem of the micro-macro link. Two alternative frameworks have traditionally been offered to account for this relationship - methodological individualism and methodological holism. The author upholds four theses. First, these two alternatives are incapable of accounting for all possible relationships between microsociological regularities and macrosociological generalizations. Second, there are at least three different ways to formalize micro-macro relationships: parallelism, localism and convergentism. Third, high-level and low-level explanations provide radically different kinds of information. Finally, the author explores a possible naturalization of the debate. The article as a whole can be read as a contribution to the problem of social complexity.