Field-theory

This is an important account of the development of the field-theory approach in the social sciences. Harald Mey concentrates on the writers from the 1930s to the present day who have used this approach to the study of the individual and of society, and gives a clear exposition of such field-theory application in its many differing forms. In addition, the author shows how a concept which was initially useful in the physical sciences came to be used first by psychologists, and subsequently by sociologists and others in related disciplines, in their search for answers to the problems presented by the study of society. Mey describes how the use of the field-theory perspective has fared when applied to specific areas of social research education, personal relationships, group behaviour. He also compares the field-theory approach to the study of societies with the structural/functional approach, and explains why he believes field-theory has a number of advantages over the structural/functional approach, especially when it comes to the dynamic problem of social change.