Finding ways to understand the nature of social change and social order-from political movements to market meltdowns-is one of the enduring problems of social science. A Theory of Fields draws together far-ranging insights from social movement theory, organizational theory, and economic and political sociology to construct a general theory of social organization and strategic action.

Neil Fligstein is the Class of 1939 Chancellor's Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. A renowned scholar of economic sociology, organizations, and political sociology, he is the author or coauthor of six books, including The Architecture of Markets and Euroclash: The EU, European Identity, and the Future of Europe.
Doug McAdam is Professor of Sociology at Stanford University. He is the author or co-author of thirteen books in the area of political sociology, with an emphasis on social movements and revolutions. Among his best known works are Political Process and the Development of Black Insurgency, 1930-1970, Freedom Summer, and (with Sid Tarrow and Charles Tilly) Dynamics of Contention.

• 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 "Embeddedness " 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