Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-m9pkr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-13T17:31:05.255Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Preface

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 January 2010

Peter B. Evans
Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island
Dietrich Rueschemeyer
Affiliation:
Brown University, Rhode Island
Theda Skocpol
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
Get access

Summary

Like society itself, the social sciences undergo continual change, and it is the mission of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) to identify and further emerging research agendas. This volume is the first publication of the council's Research Planning Committee on States and Social Structures. Established in 1983, the committee aims to foster sustained collaborations among scholars from several disciplines who share in the growing interest in states as actors and as institutional structures.

Until recently, dominant theoretical paradigms in the comparative social sciences did not highlight states as organizational structures or as potentially autonomous actors. Indeed, the term “state” was rarely used. Current work, however, increasingly views the state as an actor that, although obviously influenced by the society surrounding it, also shapes social and political processes. There is a recognized need, therefore, to improve conceptualizations of the structures and capacities of states, to explain more adequately how states are formed and reorganized, and to explore in many settings how states affect societies through their interventions – or abstentions – and through their relationships with social groups.

Most of the essays collected here were originally drafted for a conference entitled “Research Implications of Current Theories of the State” held at Mount Kisco, New York, in February 1982. The conference was sponsored by the Joint Committees on Latin American Studies and on Western Europe of the SSRC and the American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). It brought together an unusually wide range (though certainly not exhaustive set) of scholars who have been at the forefront of theorizing and comparative research on states in societal and world contexts.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1985

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Preface
  • Edited by Peter B. Evans, Brown University, Rhode Island, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Brown University, Rhode Island, Theda Skocpol, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Bringing the State Back In
  • Online publication: 29 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511628283.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Preface
  • Edited by Peter B. Evans, Brown University, Rhode Island, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Brown University, Rhode Island, Theda Skocpol, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Bringing the State Back In
  • Online publication: 29 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511628283.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Preface
  • Edited by Peter B. Evans, Brown University, Rhode Island, Dietrich Rueschemeyer, Brown University, Rhode Island, Theda Skocpol, Harvard University, Massachusetts
  • Book: Bringing the State Back In
  • Online publication: 29 January 2010
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511628283.001
Available formats
×