Randall Collins - Research

Research

Sociological Theory

• Collins is a social scientist who views theory as an accept to understanding the world. He is quoted in saying "The essence of science is precisely theory...a generalized and coherent body of ideas, which explain the range of variations in the empirical world in terms of general principles.." This is Collins way of examining the social world, with large emphasis on the Macro.

Macro-Historical Sociology of Political and Economic Change

• Macro-History: Essays in Sociology of the Long Run, focusing on the relationship between military geopolitics and state expansion and state breakdown, including causes of changing ethnic and national identities; structural determinants of democracy; and Collins’ 1980 prediction of the breakdown of the Russian empire.

Micro-Sociology: Face-to-Face Interaction

• Violence: A Micro-sociological Theory studies situations in which violence happens or fails to happen, using data from photos and videos as well as close ethnographic observations, and showing the micro-techniques and contingencies through which some persons win, lose, are stalemated, or keep their distance.

Sociology of Intellectuals (sociology of Philosophies)

• A Global Theory of Intellectual Change, which analyzes the networks of philosophers and mathematicians for over two thousand years in both Asian and Western societies, and shows what kinds of network patterns produce higher and lower levels of creative innovation in ideas.

Social Conflict (Especially Violent Conflict)