Abstract

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Keywords:: historical sociology; reductive structuralism; pluralistic structuralism; relational structuralism

Abstract:: Structuralist analysis is an important paradigm for social science research, but there is a lack of systematic clarification regarding what exactly constitutes structuralism within the social science community. By examining historical sociology, where structuralist thought has long been the mainstream, and from the perspective of the intellectual movement, we can identify three structuralist approaches:reductive structuralism, pluralistic structuralism, and relational structuralism. Reductive structuralism affirms the objectivity of the social structure, pays attention to the static and long-term macro-structural change process, and adheres to explaining social and historical changes with reductive structural factors; pluralistic structuralism emphasizes the autonomy of culture and the constructivism of social science, emphasizes the joint effect of various factors, and presents a more pluralistic trend in research fields and analytical perspectives; and relational structuralism explains social structures and social phenomena from a relational perspective, and regards social network analysis as a new paradigm for the study of social structures or relationships. The dialectical development of these three structuralist approaches demonstrates the explanatory power of classical social analysis traditions.