In Search of Mechanisms. The Role of the Agent-Based Model in connecting Analytical Sociology and Classical Social Research: the Case of Merton's Theory of Values Homophily
2015
Abstract
The paper discuss the proto-mechanisms which was possible to find in clasical studies by P.F. Lazarsfeld and R.K.
Merton. Next part found methodological inspirations in the work by Hubert M.
Blalock and Raymond Boudon in their changing strategies for the construction of sociological theories. The rest of the article analysed in detail conceptualization and modelling of Merton's Theory of Value Homophily.
We started from the famous paper by R.K. Merton and P.F.
Lazarsfeld "Friendship as Social Process". Using Agent-Based Model strategy we tested several scenarios of these processes.