Introduction
Peter Abell (born 1939) is a British social scientist, currently professor emeritus at the London School of Economics where he has founded and directed the "Interdisciplinary Institute of Management". He has been teaching for many years at LSE's Department of Management, managerial economics and strategy group.
Work
He is known for his contribution to mathematical social science, both quantitative and qualitative. He is the author of several books on methodology and individual participation and co-operation and currently focuses on an approach he coined Bayesian narratives and on network analysis particularly the role of signed structures in group formation and identity change.
Political activism
During the 1960s Abell was involved in demonstrations organised by the Committee of 100 in Trafalgar Square and advocated for civil disobedience and nuclear disarmament.
Selected publications
Books (selected)
- Model Building in Sociology (Basic ideas in the human sciences) (1971)
- Organizations as bargaining and influence systems Edited volume (1975)
- The syntax of social life: The theory and method of comparative narratives Oxford University Press(1987)
- Establishing Support Systems for Industrial Co-Operatives: Case Studies from the Third World (1988)
- Organisation Theory; An interdisciplinary Approach University of London Press (2006)
Book chapters and papers in refereed journals (selected)
- 'Some Aspects of Narrative Method' Journal of Mathematical Sociology 1993 18:1-25.
- 'On the Prospects of a unified Social Science' Socio-economic Review, 2003, 1, 1-27
- 'Narrative explanation: An alternative to variable-centered explanation?', Annual Review of Sociology, 2004, 287-310.
- 'Narratives, Bayesian narratives and narrative actions' Sociologica 2007, 1:3
- 'Are reasons explanations?.' Contemporary Sociology 2007, 36:532-534
- 'A Case for Cases,Comparative Narratives in Sociological Explanation' Sociological Methods and Research 2009, 32:1-33
- 'Singular Mechanisms and Bayesian Narratives' in Demeulenaere, Pierre, ed. Analytical sociology and social mechanisms Cambridge University Press, 2011.