Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Social Action [Paperback]

Harrison C. White (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 24, 1992

In proposing a comprehensive network theory that cuts across the range of social sciences, Harrison White rejects conventional hierarchical models and focuses instead on efforts of control in a social structure described as a tangle of locked-in practices. He argues that the widely held conceptions of person and goal grounded in traditional political economy do not provide a basis for social theory that is either coherent or consistent with current developments in psychology and anthropology. White replaces person with identity, which, in a distinctively human sense, emerges from frictions and social noise across different levels and disciplines in networks. Likewise he reshapes the notion of goals, maintaining that they merely inhabit sets of stories used to explain agency, and that action itself comes through selective strategies to break through formal organization. As his main empirical basis, White uses case studies covering a wide range of topics, including tribal religions, changing rhetorics of industrial administration and the premodern Church, practices of State-building, and change of style in popular music. His analyses draw from English social anthropology, natural science, French rhetorics, mathematics, German industrial history, control engineering, and American pragmatism.

Product Details

• Paperback: 423 pages
• Publisher: Princeton University Press (August 24, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 069100398X
• ISBN-13: 978-0691003986
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,734,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fresh Approach for Critical Social Theory, April 28, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Tallahassee, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Social Action (Hardcover)

This is not a book for the weak of heart or mind, and requires steady and multiple readings. But there is much in here to learn, as -Identity and Control- convincingly disposes of traditional sociological theory and takes issues of "structure" to new heights of abstraction. This is not to say that this book is "pie in the sky" theory. On the contrary, everything that White says should be applicable to your own life. Much of this book is architectonic, which is to say that White intends to come up with a new (possibly more 'scientific') vocabulary or vision for how we think of the "social." But there is a great deal in here which is quite pragmatic, if not political. Critical theorists should be especially interested in this book as it puts a concrete face to abstract questions of reification (what White calls blocking action). Through White's frame social domination is reconceptualized in terms of position in networks, types of social ties, styles of maneuvering, and the ability to tell persuasive stories. White is also good on the other side of agency, and provides many important leads concerning how all of us can anneal the social structures in which we are embedded, shake things up, and decouple from the shackles of routinized behavior. Certainly not a leisurely read, but if you want a good test of your intellect (one which challenges the very basic assumptions of who YOU are), give it a shot.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Master index for social network studies, February 3, 2004

By 

Donald Steiny (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Social Action (Paperback)

An acquaintence for whom I have high regard for among other things, his knowledge of social network theory, recommended this book for a "more nuanced view of social networks." It became a challenge because it is very difficult. However, it is not impossible to understand, and I am glad I took the time.

To give the flavor, the biblography is 50 pages and White expects that you are familiar with everything in the biblography and refers to them. Or more accurately, he put so much work into the book that he expects you to read them.

The interesting thing is (and Amazon must love me), if you take the time to read the references it opens up an amazing world where cognative psychology, linguistics, micro sociology merge. One arrives at a view of society and even of socially constructed reality as far more restricting than one might at first think.

There are profound assumptions in the book, or better profound elements that are based on new information about the world. For instance the organization of society into hierarchies cannot be based on the attributes of individuals. White extends these results upward through institutions and large social formations.

The book looks at our concept of "self" and challenges the view that has lead to our modern psychology, sociology and economics.

Finally, the critical point of the books is about "getting action." How is it that someone embedded in the web of ties and relationship we are all in can succeed at doing anything?

I have spent nearly 6 months reading this book, reading it, reading references, and then reading it again and I do not feel I have wasted my time.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Theory Base for Sociologists Remarkably Undertapped, February 5, 2005

By 

Ryan L. Lanham (Blacksburg, VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Identity and Control: A Structural Theory of Social Action (Paperback)

First, let me recommend Don Steiny's review also found here. It is accurate and useful. I would add a few things.

The book is known for having a thick style. There is a view I have heard expressed more than once that says it is so tortured it must say little, or something to that effect. I disagree. It was, at least for me, one of those rare works where you read a few lines and then stare off into space mixing new thoughts of your own with the author's examples and his often utterly new ways of describing things. I suppose not everyone does this, but I did. Still, his descriptions are never quite complete and too often ideas feel inadequately fleshed out. For what is there, the pieces are so stimulating it almost hurts.

I&C is hard stuff with its own terminology. It will win no prizes for clarity. It cannot be skimmed, and it is frustratingly cumulative--you've got to keep going back to figure out exactly how he is using a term. I read with a pencil and almost every book page gets an underline or two. My copy looks like I wrote it.

The work is particularly suitable for someone who knows some organizational or social theory yet is relatively new to thinking about social networks and their implications. Institutional economists, social psychologists, or other students of organizations, institutions, and government willing to wade into unknown theory oceans would find it of great interest.

I'd guess that those who reject I&C or who are frustrated by it tend to hold a positive orientation toward highly formalized network approaches while holding little taste for the messier theoretical stuff. This book does not emphasize symbolic approaches, graph theory, or math models. It is conceptual and textual. A good portion of it discusses the importance and nature of narratives, for instance.

There is of course no way to know, but I suspect this book will be like certain works of Durkheim's or Mead's in that people will be tracking it down for a long time. If PhD theses exist in 2104, my guess is that more than a few will still be pondering I&C.