Occluding the Global: Analytic Bifurcation, Causal Scientism, and Alternatives in Historical Sociology

Abstract

Historical sociology has not been as global as it might be, instead remaining tied to various forms of state-centrism. This paper explains why and suggests some strategies for redressing the problem. Focusing mostly upon “second wave” historical sociology, it argues that historical sociology’s occlusion of global and transnational forms, dynamics, and processes lies in its analytic infrastructure which analytically bifurcates social relations across space and emphasizes a variable-based causal scientism. Overcoming the occlusion requires rescaling the objects of study and seeking descriptive assemblages of global and transnational forms, dynamics, and processes.