Most techniques sociologists use to analyze empirical phenomena make the single equilibrium assumption that a given configuration of independent variables will produce a single outcome. The author uses two simple models to show that when the assumption does not hold, such techniques may be inadequate. The assumption, moreover, may not be valid for many social phenomena. To show this, the author takes two recent published examples of work that assumes a single equilibrium and presents models of the phenomena that suggest that assumption may not hold. The consequence of analysis that erroneously assumes a single equilibrium may be a fundamental misunderstanding of the phenomenon in question and faulty policy conclusions.
AldrichHoward E.MarsdenPeter V., 1988. “Environments and Organizations.” Pp. 361–92 in Handbook of Sociology, edited by SmelserN. J., Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
2.
AlischLutz-MichaelAzizighanbariShahramBargfeldtMartin. 1997. “Dynamics of Children's Networks.” Pp. 163–81 in Chaos, Complexity and Sociology: Myths, Models, and Theories, edited by EveR. A.HorsfallS.LeeM. E., Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
3.
BergerJosephFisekM. HamitNormanRobert Z.ZelditchMorrisJr.1977. Status Characteristics and Social Interaction: An Expectation States Approach. New York: Elsevier.
4.
ColemanJames S.1964. Introduction to Mathematical Sociology. New York: Free Press.
5.
EveRaymond A.HorsfallSarahLeeMary E., Eds. 1997. Chaos, Complexity and Sociology: Myths, Models, and Theories. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
6.
FararoThomas J.1989. The Meaning of General Theoretical Sociology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
7.
FeynmanRichard. 1965. The Character of Physical Law. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
8.
GottmanJohn M.MurrayJames D.SwansonCatherine C.TysonRebeccaSwansonKristin R., 2002. The Mathematics of Marriage: Dynamic Nonlinear Models. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
9.
GouldRoger. 2002. “The Origins of Status Hierarchies: A Formal Theory and Empirical Test.”The American Journal of Sociology107:1143–78.
10.
HannanMichaelFreemanJohn. 1977. “The Population Ecology of Organizations.”American Journal of Sociology82:929–64.
11.
HeckathornDouglas D.1990. “Collective Sanctions and Compliance Norms: A Formal Theory of Group-Mediated Social Control.”American Sociological Review55:366–84.
12.
HomansGeorge. 1950. The Human Group. New York: Harpers.
13.
HopcroftRosemary L.1994. “The Social Origins of Agrarian Change in Late Medieval England.”The American Journal of Sociology99:1559–95.
14.
IwaoSumikode Asola PoolIthielHagiwaraShigeru. 1981. “Japanese and U.S. Media: Some Cross-Cultural Insights into TV Violence.”Journal of Communication31:28–36.
15.
JassoGuillermina. 1980. “A New Theory of Distributive Justice.”American Sociological Review45:3–32.
16.
KerrNorbert L.Kaufman-GillilandCynthia M., 1994. “Communication, Commitment, and Cooperation in Social Dilemmas.”Journal of Personality and Social Psychology66:319–32.
17.
KrugEtienne G.PowellKenneth E.DahlbergLinda L., 1998. “Firearm-Related Deaths in the United States and 35 Other High- and Upper-Middle-Income Countries.”International Journal of Epidemiology27:214–21.
18.
KuznetsSimon. 1930. Secular Movements in Production and Prices. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, Riverside Press.
19.
JamesMahoney. 2000. “Path Dependence in Historical Sociology.”Theory and Society29:507–48.
20.
RaginCharles. 1987. The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
21.
RoscignoVincent J.DanaherWilliam F., 2001. “Media and Mobilization: The Case of Radio and Southern Textile Worker Insurgency, 1929–1934.”American Sociological Review66:21–48.
22.
RoscignoVincent J.DanaherWilliam F., 2004. The Voice of Southern Labor: Radio, Music, and Textile Strikes, 1929–1934. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
23.
RossCatherine E.MirowskyJohnPribeshShana. 2001. “Powerlessness and the Amplification of Threat: Neighborhood Disadvantage, Disorder, and Mistrust.”American Sociological Review66:568–91.
24.
RotterJulian B.1980. “Interpersonal Trust, Trustworthiness, and Gullibility.”American Psychologist26:1–7.
25.
SapersteinAlvin M.1997. “The Origins of Order and Disorder in Physical and Social Deterministic Systems.” Pp. 102–22 in Chaos, Complexity and Sociology: Myths, Models, and Theories, edited by EveR. A.HorsfallS.LeeM. E., Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
26.
SimonHerbert A.1952. “A Formal Theory of Interaction in Social Groups.”American Sociological Review17:202–11.
27.
StinchcombeArthur L.1965. “Organizations and Social Structure.” Pp. 153–93 in Handbook of Organizations, edited by MarchJ. G., Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
28.
StrogatzSteven H.1994. Nonlinear Dynamics and Chaos. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
29.
StroupWilliam F.II1997. “Webs of Chaos: Implications for Research Designs.” Pp. 125–40 in Chaos, Complexity and Sociology: Myths, Models, and Theories, edited by EveR. A.HorsfallS.LeeM. E., Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
30.
TarrowSidney. 1998. Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
31.
von NeumannJohn. 1963. “Method in the Physical Sciences.” Pp. 477–98 in J. von Neumann— Collected Works, Vol. VI, edited by TaubA. H., New York: McMillan.
32.
WhitmeyerJoseph M.2004. “The Group Control Catastrophe.”Sociological Perspectives47:109–29.
33.
WhitmeyerJoseph M.YeingstCynthia. 2006. “Modeling Coleman's Friendly Association Networks.”Social Science Research35:642–67.
34.
WhitmeyerJoseph M.WittekRafael. Forthcoming. “Inequalities in Network Structures.”Social Science Research.
35.
YamagishiToshio. 1998. The Structure of Trust: The Evolutionary Games of Mind and Society. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press.
36.
YamagishiToshio. 2001. “Trust as a Form of Social Intelligence.” Pp. 121–47 in Trust in Society, edited by CookK., New York: Russell Sage Foundation.
37.
YamaguchiKazuo. 1996. “Power in Networks of Substitutable and Complementary Exchange Relations: A Rational-Choice Model and an Analysis of Power Centralization.”American Sociological Review61:308–32.
