Macrolevel Social Mechanisms

Conceptual Overview and Discussion

Macro mechanisms are a link between macrolevel social structures and other macro- and microlevel social units. They explain why and how macro structures affect or shape, and can be reproduced or modified by the actions and interactions of individuals, groups, and organizations under certain conditions. They also address the question of why and how macrolevel structures can be affected and shaped by other macro structures. Macro mechanisms are embodied in particular social relations, settings, movements, organizations, and institutions. Some examples are educational institutions, government policies, laws, labor markets, international trade, industrialization, migration, urbanization, and social class relations. From a critical perspective, poverty, unemployment, and crime are some others.

Macro mechanisms operate at all fields of society. The effect they convey has an impact on almost all members of society directly or indirectly. Yet, it is not uniform as it is shaped by other micro- and macrolevel case-specific factors. Macro mechanisms do not explain specific impacts and why different effects occur in different individual cases within a given context. They explain the general effect more or less valid for all cases in the context.

Macro structures and mechanisms are more theorized than empirically studied. They seem to be the subject of grand sociocultural theories. Case studies are important to show that macro structures and mechanisms exist and operate within society and shape sociocultural practices and contexts and that macro mechanisms are a means for individuals and groups to reproduce or modify macro structures. Case studies ground grand theories within concrete historical settings.

Researchers generally conduct comparative historical case studies to analyze macro mechanisms. Comparisons are made across individual cases within national or international contexts. Within national contexts, generalization occurs through similarities between individual cases. In international comparisons, generalization is achieved by linking nation-specific factors to nation-specific effects through a universal social mechanism. Comparative case analysis allows for generalization. The general effect macro mechanisms carry may not be observed in individual, but in multiple cases. Besides, the operation of macro mechanisms generally unfolds over time. Historical analysis provides researchers with a better understanding of that operation.

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Another important research strategy is to select a critical case. A critical case has a strategic importance in that if it is refuted, the proposed macrolevel theory can be refuted. Critical case studies are a solution for the problem of generalization because they are methodologically a test of falsification.

Case studies also help develop specific insights about the operation of macro mechanisms within particular social and individual contexts. The operation is located within individual cases in everyday settings. Because of their in-depth approach, case studies can demonstrate how macro structures are differentially reflected in individual cases by a number of particular macro/micro mechanisms and how macro mechanisms differentially operate in individual cases due to the existence of other contextual factors and mechanisms. Thus, case studies, highlighting the specific operations of macro mechanisms, show macro mechanisms are socially and historically shaped.

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