David used the example of his own researches to draw our attention to the fact that the so-called 'soft' sciences need not be as 'soft' as our prejudices might have it. According to these prejudices, sociologists are engaged in one of two projects: they either pursue a hermeneutic enterprise aimed at 'understanding (Verstehen)' rather than 'explaining (Erklären),' or they collect lots of data hoping for knowledge to emerge from their accumulation (as one discovers statistical correlations, etc.). If the first of these enterprises is often associated with the legacy of Max Weber, the second of these may be traced back to Mill, Pearson, and Fisher.
Where in all of this is theory, where are the causal laws, where is experimental confirmation or falsification of such laws? Indeed, David wondered whether that kind of sociology deserves to be called 'science' at all. (His critique appeared as a book co-authored with Judith Willer: Systematic Empiricism: Critique of a Pseudo-Science, published by Prentice-Hall in 1973).
To make the contrast clear, he showed us research that proceeds from axioms which generate predictions which in turn are testable and tested in laboratories. He introduced us to a field in sociology in which rivaling hypotheses can be compared by designing crucial experiments. That field of inquiry considers exchange networks and yields a theory of power in such networks. It is a structural theory in that it considers (bargaining) power as a function of location within a network of agents who can exchange goods with one another. To test various theories of power (exclusion, vulnerability, equidependence, exchange-resistance, etc.), different networks are designed and tested, variables can be controlled for, etc. For example, together with John Skvoretz (also at USC), David published "Exclusion and Power: A Test of Four Theories of Power in Exchange Networks" in American Sociological Review, 58 (1993), pp. 801-818. With Jacek Szmatka, David replicated his lab experiments in (then still Communist) Poland to control for the variable of socialization (cf. "Cross-National Experimental Investigations of Elementary Theory" in Advances in Group Processes, 10 (1993), 37-81). For more background, one can also consult his book Theory and the Experimental Investigation of Social Structures (Gordon and Breach, 1987).
Alfred Nordmann
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