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Advances in Sequence Analysis: Theory, Method, Applications pp 39–50Cite as

Using Optimal Matching Analysis in Sociology: Cost Setting and Sociology of Time

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Part of the book series: Life Course Research and Social Policies ((LCRS,volume 2))

Abstract

This chapter is a reflection on the conditions required to use Optimal Matching (OM) in sociology. The success of OM in biology is not related to any supposed similarity of the method with biological processes, but comes from setting costs in accordance with biological theory. As sequences in sociology are made of events and time, the determination of costs should be guided by sociological theories of time. After a discussion of the sociological meaning and consequences of costs, this chapter comes back to the Dynamic Hamming Distance and the body of social theories of time (Durkheim, Elias, Bourdieu) from which it is derived as an example of how sociological theory can inform cost setting when using Optimal Matching in sociology.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “The calendar is the periodic order of rites. Its history also teaches us that it is the code of the qualities of time. The first calendars were almanacs that recorded, day by day, magico-religious forecasts and prescriptions” (Hubert 1905).

  2. 2.

    Meetings of bourgeois councils or courts to deal with the affairs of the town, market gatherings, the beginning and end of work for day labourers, the opening and closing of city gates, and more unusual events such as gatherings to respond to threats of fire or of war (Landes 2000, p. 76; Dohrn-van Rossum 1992, p. 206).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Sciences Po, Paris, France

    Laurent Lesnard

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  1. Laurent Lesnard
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Correspondence to Laurent Lesnard .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst of Political & International Studies, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Austria

    Philippe Blanchard

  2. Centre LINES/LIVES, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Austria

    Felix Bühlmann

  3. Centre LINES/LIVES, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Austria

    Jacques-Antoine Gauthier

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Lesnard, L. (2014). Using Optimal Matching Analysis in Sociology: Cost Setting and Sociology of Time. In: Blanchard, P., Bühlmann, F., Gauthier, JA. (eds) Advances in Sequence Analysis: Theory, Method, Applications. Life Course Research and Social Policies, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04969-4_3

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