A*****Kevin outlines his essential unit of analysis: cultural
production. Cultural production refers to two simultaneous realms: how
people create themselves, and how people reproduce culture. Behind this
unit of analysis is a causal theory. Persons and forms of sociocultural
organization are "constituted through" ("caused by") social practice. In
particular, the "educated" and "uneducated" person is "produced by"
("caused by") the interplay between social structure and human agency.
Steve, I think "cultural production" is a topic, but I wouldn't call it a
"unit of analysis". When Marx set out to study capital, he ended up with
commodity as a unit of analysis. They are not quite the same thing.
Can we take "caused by" as synonymous with "constituted through"? and is
"social practice" a sufficiently well-specified term to function as
"cause"? If we discover that measles is caused by practice, does that help us?
I think I agree with you that "the interplay between social structure and
human agency" is at the heart of the question here. But does "the interplay
between social structure and human agency" really fit the description of a
"cause"?
And what I have really been driving at is: "what is the unit of analysis
for understanding the concept of **cause**", not "what is the unit of
analysis for discovering the causes underlying the production of uneducated
people" or something.
Andy
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