Abstract
The movement known as analytical sociology (AS) has for years represented the most interesting challenge in the attempt to construct a so-called middle-range sociology such as that developed by Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K.
Merton at Columbia University in the 1940's and 1950's. Analytical sociology.
Actions and Networks edited by Gianluca Manzo constitutes an interpretation of the identity of AS that is equally interesting. The aim that Manzo states in his introduction to this volume is a bold and ambitious one: to provide not only a better, clearer and more exhaustive list of the principles upon which the cognitive task of AS is based, but, above all, to give also a metatheoretical framework and a research program.
This is of course my interpretation. The author keeps a low profile, presenting his position simply as a proposal for ""a specific understanding of analytical sociology"".