Fuzzy Set Theory and Concepts: A Proposal for Concept Formation and Operationalization
In: Comparative SociologySearch for other papers by Mario Quaranta in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
The quantity-quality debate in social sciences also concerns concept formation and operationalization. The first approach has strong naturalist assumptions, while the second one focuses on the historical specificity of concepts. The solution to overcome this divide would be finding a path which balances the two perspectives. In this article we argue that fuzzy set theory can be a helpful tool for concept formation and operationalization. The application of fuzzy set theory to concept formation and operationalization provides, first, the opportunity of looking at concepts as complex constructs made up of attributes logically interconnected one with the other and, second, of measuring them accordingly. Thus, after presenting our general argument, we show a theoretical and an empirical application of how to use fuzzy sets in concept formation and operationalization.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Adcock Robert & Collier David “Measurement Validity: A Shared Standard for Qualitative and Quantitative Research” American Political Science Review 2001 25 3 529 546
-
Aus Jonathan P. “Conjunctural causation in comparative case-oriented research” Quality and Quantity 2009 43 2 173 183
-
Barnes Samuel H. & Kaase Max Political Action: Mass Participation in Five Western Democracies 1979 Beverly Hills Sage
-
Becker Howard S. Tricks of the Trade. How to Think About Your Research While You’re Doing It 1998 Chicago Chicago University Press
-
Belohlavek Radim, Klir George J., Lewis Harold W. III & Way Eileen C. “Concepts and fuzzy sets: Misunderstandings, misconceptions and oversights” International Journal of Approximate Reasoning 2009 51 1 23 34
-
Bollen Kenneth & Jackman Robert W. “Democracy, atability, and dichotomies” American Sociological Review 54 1989 612 621
-
Bourdieu Pierre Science of Science and Reflexivity 2004 Chicago University of Chicago Press
-
Bendix Richard “Concepts and generalizations in comparative sociological studies” American Sociological Review 1963 28 4 532 539
-
Bevir Mark & Kedar Asaf “Concept formation in political science: An anti–naturalist critique of qualitative methodology” Perspectives on Politics 2008 6 3 503 517
-
Collier David & Adcock Robert “Democracy and dichotomies: A pragmatic approach to choices about concepts” Annual Review of Political Science 1999 2 537 565
-
Collier David & Gerring John Concepts and Method in Social Science. The Tradition of Giovanni Sartori 2008 London Routledge
-
Collier David & Levitsky Steven “Democracy with adjectives: Conceptual innovation in comparative research” World Politics 1997 49 3 430 451
-
Collier David & Mahon James E. “Conceptual “stretching” revisited: Adapting categories in comparative analysis” American Political Science Review 1993 87 4 845 855
-
Crozier Michel, Huntington Samuel & Watanuki Joji The Crisis of Democracy 1975 New York New York University Press
-
Dahl Robert Polyarchy. Participation and Opposition 1971 New Haven Yale University Press
-
Dahl Robert Democracy and its Critics 1989 New Haven Yale University Press
-
Dalton Russell J. Citizen Politics in Western Democracies. Public Opinion and Political Parties in the United States, Great Britain, West Germany, and France 1988 Chatham Chatham House
-
Dalton Russell J. Democratic Challenges. Democratic Choices. The Erosion of Political Support in Advanced Industrial Democracies 2004 Oxford Oxford University Press
-
Della Porta Donatella & Keating Micheal Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences. A Pluralist Perspective 2008 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
-
Diamond Larry & Leonardo Morlino Assessing the Quality of Democracy 2005 Baltimore John Hopkins University Press
-
Easton David A System Analysis of Political Life 1965 New York Wiley
-
European Social Survey ESS Round 5 (2010/2011) 2012 London Centre for Comparative Social Surveys, City University London
-
Fox John Applied Regression Analysis and Generalized Linear Models 2008 Thousand Oaks Sage
-
Gelman Andrew & Weakliem David “Of beauty, sex and power” American Scientist 2009 97 310 316
-
Gerring John “What makes a concept good? A criterial framework for understanding concept formation in the social sciences” Polity 1999 31 3 357 393
-
Goertz Gary Social Science Concepts: A User’s Guide 2006 Princeton Princeton University Press
-
Klingemann Hans-Dieter & Fuchs Dieter Citizen and the State 1995 Oxford University Press
-
Komatsu Lloyd “Recent views on conceptual structure” Psychological Bullettin 1992 112 3 500 526
-
Kosko Bart Fuzzy Thinking: The New Science of Fuzzy Logic 1993 New York Hyperion
-
Kvist Jon “Welfare reform in the nordic countries in the 1990s: Using fuzzy-set theory to assess conformity to ideal types” Journal of European Social Policy 1999 9 3 231 252
-
Kvist Jon “Fuzzy set ideal type analysis” Journal of Business Research 2006 60 474 481
-
Kvist Jon Rihoux Benoit & Grimm Heike M. “Diversity, ideal types and fuzzy sets in comparative welfare state research” Innovative Comparative Methods for Policy Analysis. Beyond the Quantitative–Qualitative Divide 2007 Heidelberg Springer Verlag 167 184
-
Lakoff George “Hedges: A study in meaning criteria and the logic of fuzzy concepts” Journal of Philosophical Logic 1973 2 4 458 508
-
Lakoff George Woman, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveals About the Mind 1987 Chicago University of Chicago Press
-
Lazarsfeld Paul F. “Some remarks on typological procedures in social theory” Zeitdchrift fur Sozialforshung 1937 6 119 139
-
Levi Margaret & Stoker Laura “Political Trust and Trustworthiness” Annual Review of Political Science 2000 3 475 507
-
Mahoney James & Goertz Gary “A tale of two cultures: Contrasting quantitative and qualitative research” Political Analysis 2006 14 3 227 249
-
Mantzavinos Chrysostomos Naturalistic Hermeneutics 2005 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
-
Milbrath Lester W. & Goel Madan L. Political Participation: How and Why Do People Get Involved in Politics 1977 Lanham University Press of America
-
Newton Kenneth Dalton Russell J. & Klingemann Hans-Dieter “Social and Political Trust” The Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior 2007 Oxford Oxford University Press 342 361
-
Norris Pippa Critical Citizens 1999 Oxford Oxford University Press
-
Norris Pippa Democratic Phoenix: Reinventing Political Activism 2002 New York Cambridge University Press
-
Parry Geraint, Moyser George & Day Neil Political Participation and Democracy in Britain 1992 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
-
Partee Barbara H., Meulen Alice ter & Wall Robert E. Mathematical Methods in inguistics 1990 Dordrecht Kluwer Academic Publishing
-
Pharr Susan & Putnam Rober Disaffected Democracies: What’s Troubling the Trilateral Democracies 2000 Princeton Princeton University Press
-
Przeworski Alan, Alvarez Michail E., Cheibub Jose A. & Limongi Fernando Democracy and Development: Political Institutions and Well-Being in the World, 1950–1990 2000 New York Cambridge University Press
-
Ragin Charles C. The Comparative Method. Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies 1987 Berkley and Los Angeles University of California Press
-
Ragin Charles C. Fuzzy-Set Social Science 2000 Chicago University of Chicago Press
-
Ragin Charles C. Redesigning Social Inquiry: Fuzzy Sets and Beyond 2008 Chicago The University of Chicago Press
-
Ragin Charles C. & Zaret David “Theory and method in comparative research: Two strategies” Social Forces 1983 61 3 731 754
-
Russell Bertrand “Vagueness” Australasian Journal of Philosophy 1923 1 2 4 92
-
Sartori Giovanni “Concept misformation in comparative politics” American Political Science Review 1970 64 4 1033 1053
-
Sartori Giovanni Sartori Giovanni, Riggs Fred & Teune Henry “The tower of babel” The Tower of Babel 1975 University of Pittsburgh International Studies Association 7 38 Occasional Paper no. 6
-
Sartori Giovanni Sartori Giovanni “Guidelines for concept analysis” Social Science Concepts: A Systematic Analysis 1984 Beverly Hills Sage 15 85
-
Sartori Giovanni, Riggs Fred & Teune Henry The Tower of Babel 1975 University of Pittsburgh International Studies Association Occasional Paper no. 6
-
Schmitter Philippe C. “The nature and future of comparative politics” European Political Science Review 2009 1 1 33 61
-
Schneider Carsten Q. & Wagemann Claudius “Reducing complexity in qualitative comparative analysis (QCA): Remote and proximate factors and the consolidation of democracy” European Journal of Political Research 2006 45 751 786
-
Schneider Carsten Q. & Wagemann Claudius “Standards of good practice in qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) and fuzzy-sets” Comparative Sociology 2010 9 3 397 418
-
Schneider Carsten Q. & Wagemann Claudius Set-Theoretic Methods for the Social Sciences 2012 Cambridge Cambridge University Press
-
Smithson Michael & Verkuilen Joy Fuzzy-Set Theory. Application in the Social Sciences 2006 Thousands Oaks Sage
-
Tarrow Sidney Brady Henry & Collier David “Bridging the quantitative-qualitative divide” Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Tools, Shared Standards 2004 Lanham Rowman & Littlefield 171 180
-
Teorell Jan, Torcal Marian & Montero Josè R. Van Deth Jan W., Montero Josè R. & Westholm Anders “Political participation: mapping the terrain” Citizenhip and Involvement in European Democracies. A Comparative Analysis 2007 London and New York Routledge 334 357
-
Verba Sidney & Nie Norman H. Participation in America: Political Democracy and Social Equality 1972 New York Harper and Row
-
Verba Sidney, Nie Norman H. & Kim Jae-On Participation and Political Equality: A Seven Nation Comparison 1978 Chicago The University of Chicago Press
-
Verkuilen Joy “Assigning membership in a fuzzy set analysis” Sociological Methods & Research 2005 33 4 462 496
-
Weber Max The Methodology of the Social Sciences 1997 New York Free Press
-
Wittgenstein Ludwig Philosophical Investigations 1958 London Prentice-Hall
-
Zadeh Lofti A. “Fuzzy sets” Information and Control 1965 8 338 353
-
Zadeh Lofti A. “Fuzzy logic” IEEE Computer 1988 21 4 83 93
-
3)
For instance, Goertz (2006) uses the example of copper. This type of metal has an atomic structure that “produces” its reddish color, but we would be mistaken if we based the conceptualization upon this characteristic, which is the effect of the atomic structure and not a property itself.
-
6)
See Komatsu (1992) for a review on cognitive approaches to concepts.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 328 | 274 | 21 |
| Full Text Views | 20 | 9 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 37 | 19 | 2 |
Fuzzy Set Theory and Concepts: A Proposal for Concept Formation and Operationalization
In: Comparative SociologySearch for other papers by Mario Quaranta in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
The quantity-quality debate in social sciences also concerns concept formation and operationalization. The first approach has strong naturalist assumptions, while the second one focuses on the historical specificity of concepts. The solution to overcome this divide would be finding a path which balances the two perspectives. In this article we argue that fuzzy set theory can be a helpful tool for concept formation and operationalization. The application of fuzzy set theory to concept formation and operationalization provides, first, the opportunity of looking at concepts as complex constructs made up of attributes logically interconnected one with the other and, second, of measuring them accordingly. Thus, after presenting our general argument, we show a theoretical and an empirical application of how to use fuzzy sets in concept formation and operationalization.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 328 | 274 | 21 |
| Full Text Views | 20 | 9 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 37 | 19 | 2 |