Yan Fei: Eventful Sociology: From Structural-Eventful Analysis to Relational-Eventful Analysis
Eventful Sociology: From Structural-Eventful Analysis to Relational-Eventful Analysis
Sociological Studies, 2024 Issue 1
[Abstract]
"Event" is a critical variable in historical and sociological studies. However, the endorsement of event in history has been questioned by the French Annales School in the 20th century, especially through Braudel's theory of the "longue durée". In contrast, sociology employs event to explore the underlying social mechanisms in historical episodes, revealing the dialectical relationships between events and structures. This paper draws on William Sewell's classic study of eventful sociology to examine the meaning of event from the perspectives of history and sociology. Moreover, this paper proposes a new analytical framework called "relational-eventful" to understand the relational essence of eventful temporalities in social science research.
