Part I – MI/ Methods and Key Research Topics in the Social Sciences.- 1. MI/History/Religious Phenomena; David D’Avray.- 2. MI/Organized Action; Erhard Friedberg.- 3. MI/Collective Intentionality; Jens Greve.- 4. MI/Culturalism/Multiculturalism; Simon Langlois.- 5. MI/Educational Inequality; Ye Liu.- 6. MI/ Social Movements; Anthony Oberschall.- 7. MI/Historical-Sociological Explanation; Richard Münch.- MI/Deviance; Michael Rosenberg.- 8. MI/Theories of Social Change; Michael Schmid.- 9. MI/Cultural Anthropology; Richard A. Shweder.- 10.  IM/Kelsen/Social Theory.- 11. IM/Kelsen/Social Theory; Stephen P. Turner.-  Part 2 - Controversial Issues about MI.- 12. MI and its Critics/Analytical Philosophy; Alban Bouvier.- 13. The Limitations of the Economic Approach/MI; Olivier Favereau.- 14. Contemporary Debates on RCM/MI; Catherine Herfeld.- 15.  Reductionism/MI;  Francesco Di Iorio.- 16. Agent-Based Computational Models/MI; Gianluca Manzo.- 17. MI and Political Individualism; Branko Mitrovik.- 18. Reductionism/Invisible Hand Explanations; Emma Tieffenbach.- 19. The Individualism-Holism Debate in Economics; Richard Wagner.- 20. MI/Methods and Political Assumptions in Sociology, Holistic Biases; Ieva Zake.- Part III - MI in Practice.- 21. Beliefs/Religions: Case Studies; Salvatore Abbruzzese.- 22. Sociological Analysis of Singular Phenomena; Raymond Boudon.- 23. ABS/IM/Empirical Case Studies; Shu-Heng Chen.- 24. MI, Unintended Consequences and Economic Empirical Research; Christopher J. Coyne.- 25. Understanding Radicalization; Hans Kippenberg.- 26. MI/Mathematical Models of Social Action; Werner Raub.- 27. MI/Understanding the Meaning of Social Action; Natalia Ruiz-Junco.- 28. MI/Anthropology and Identities; Gunther Schlee (Max Planck Institute, Emeritus, Germany): MI/Anthropology and Identities.- 29. MI/Risk and Uncertainty/Catastrophes/Covid19; Bryan Turner.- Part IV. Methodological Individualism and its Critics: A Roundtable Discussion.- 30. Institutional Individualism and Methodological Individualism; Joseph Agassi, N. Bulle & F. Di Iorio.- 31. MI and Critical Realism; Margaret Archer.- 32. Methodological Localism and Methodological Individualism; Daniel Little, N. Bulle & F. Di Iorio.- 33. MI/Reductionism/Social Facts; Steven Lukes, N. Bulle & F. Di Iorio.  

While methodological individualism is a fundamental approach within the social sciences, it is often misunderstood. This highlights the need for a discursive and up-to-date reference work analyzing this approach’s classic arguments and assumptions in the light of contemporary issues in sociology, economics and philosophy. This two-volume handbook presents the first comprehensive overview of methodological individualism. Chapters discuss historical and contemporary debates surrounding this central approach within the social sciences, as well as cutting edge developments related to the individualist tradition with philosophical and scientific implications. Bringing together multiple contributions from the world’s leading experts on this important tradition of theorizing, this collective endeavor provides teachers, researchers and students in sociology, economics, and philosophy with a reliable and critical understanding of the founding principles, key thinkers and intellectual development of MI since the late 19th century.​Nathalie Bulle is Research Director at the National Centre for Scientific Research, Paris, France.Francesco Di Iorio is Associate Professor at Nankai University, Tianjin, China.

“This collection of essays represents a major and much needed academic achievement. For it brings together a wide ranging discussion on a topic—methodological individualism—that for too long has lacked any comprehensive, in depth, and scholarly treatment of the many dimensions this position touches in philosophy of social science. By assembling such an impressive array of scholars, Bulle and Di Iorio have provided all researchers and scholars in this area now and for the foreseeable future with a much needed resource, one destined to provide an authoritative voice for all those concerned with these critical debates.”   Paul A. Roth, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA“This is a tremendous survey, both wide-ranging and original, a veritable mother lode of useful analyses, from some of the leading figures in the field. The editors are to be congratulated”. Barry Smith, The State University of New York at Buffalo, USA"This is a truly heroic accomplishment. The two volumes provide a unique treasure of multifarious perspectives and insights into key issues in the ontology, epistemology and methodology of social sciences. This giant collection will be immensely useful for students and researchers alike.” Uskali Mäki, University of Helsinki, Finland

Presents the first comprehensive overview of methodological individualismExplores the history of methodological individualism and discusses contemporary debatesExamines the intersection of MI with other key intellectual traditions in economics and sociology