Social Matter: An Ontology for the Social Sciences

Jul 2025 · Springer Nature

Ebook

168

Pages

About this ebook

This book helps answer a fundamental question: What is the social world made of? It presents a comprehensive ontology of social entities, activities, and relations. Basic building blocks of the social world, from humans and animals to objects and cognitive entities are explored, while also posing open questions about the status of living beings. By introducing more complex social forms, such as networks and collectives, and examining how these emerge through shared resources and interactions the author applies the familiar social science notions like classes and organizations and explores life courses and causality within social phenomena. As a whole, this book offers an innovative framework for understanding the social world, inviting scholars and readers in philosophy, social sciences, and political sciences to rethink the entities and processes that shape our social reality.

About the author

Michel Grossetti is Research Director in the French National Research Center (CNRS) and School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS). He studied mathematics and sociology. Michel Grossetti has conducted research into social networks, innovation, spatial dynamics, social science methodology and sociological theory. He has published or directed twelve books and more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals (including Social Networks, Revue Française de Sociologie, European Planning Studies, Built Environment, Urban Studies, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research). An important feature of his work is its strong involvement in multidisciplinary collaborations with historians, geographers, economists, and sometimes as chemists or phonetic experts. In addition to his books or articles in sociology, he has published, alone or jointly, numerous articles in economics or geographical journals, and contributions to collective books in history.

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