A Theory of Fields

Chapter 1: The Gist of It Introduction - The Central Elements of the Theory - Other Perspectives - Conclusion Chapter 2: Micro-Foundations Introduction - Meaning and Membership - The Collective as Existential Refuge - Social Skill - Social Skill in Action - The Scope of the Theory - Institutional Politics - Social movements - Markets and the Economy - The Nonprofit Sector - Conclusion Chapter 3: Macro Implications Introduction - The of Strategic Action Fields - An Excursus on Formal Organization and Bureaucracy - The State as a system of strategic action fields - The Impact of State Fields on Non-state strategic action fields - The Dependence of States and State Fields on Non-state strategic action fields - Internal Governance Units - Higher Education and the Professions - Conclusion Chapter 4: Change and Stability in Strategic Action Fields Introduction - Current Debates - The Emergence of Strategic Action Fields - Sustaining a Settlement - Settlements and Ruptures - Reestablishing - Field Stability - The Relationship between Social Skill and the State of the Strategic Action Field - Social Skill and the Emergence of Fields - Social Skill and the Reproduction of Fields - Social Skill and the Transformation of Fields - Conclusion Chapter 5: Illustrating the Perspective Introduction - The Civil Rights Struggle, 1932-1980 - Setting the Stage - The Field of Racial Politics - Destabilizing Changes - The Episode of Contention and the Rise of the Civil Rights Movement - A New Settlement - The Declining Salience of the Cold War Dynamic - The Revenge of the Dixiecrats and the End of the New Deal Electoral Regime - The Rise of Black Power and the Rupture in the Movement strategic action fields - The Institutionalization of the Civil Rights Movement and Its Impact on Other Strategic Action Fields - Summing up - The Transformation of the U.S. Mortgage Market, 1969-2010 - The Dominant Strategic Action Fields of the Mortgage Market, 1934-1987 - Changes that Destabilized the Mortgage Market, 1969-1987 - Settlement and the new Strategic Action Field - The Rise of the Industrial model of the MBS market, 1993-2007 - The Causes of the Crisis - The Impact of the Strategic Action Field based on the Industrial model on other strategic action fields - Conclusion Chapter 6 Methods Introduction The Roadmap How to Tell if a Strategic Action Field Exists Emergence, Stability, and Crisis, Part 1 The Problem of the State in Relation to Strategic Action Fields Emergence, Stability, and Crisis, Part 2 Social Skill, Strategic Action, and the Question of Entrepreneurship Considering Different Philosophies of Science and Methodological Strategies A Positivist Approach to Strategic Action Fields Realist Approaches to Strategic Action Fields The Problem of Empiricism Conclusion Chapter 7 A Theory of Strategic Action Fields So what is new here? The Problem of the Accumulation of Knowledge in the Social Sciences The Surprising Discovery of Fields Toward a Collaborative Program of Theory and Research on Fields Bibliography