An ostensibly singular concept can lull analysts into overgeneralization.
Evidence
Fifth, all this creates a conceptual challenge. ‘Conviviality’ works well to name a fertile field of inquiry, but poses challenges in its current usage as an analytical term. Fraught with contradictory interpretations (Samanani 2022), the concept nonetheless retains an ostensible singularity that suggests that different discussions of ‘conviviality’ are somehow about the same thing. This risks continually reorienting analysis towards higher levels of generality, impeding our ability to interrogate more specific possibilities, and how these are patterned. — Farhan Samanani, Conviviality and its others, 87
Categorization
- XREF: Echoes the critique of totalizing/packaging concepts in social theory — cf. work warning against ‘big’ concepts flattening specificity. — connects to: Misusing a concept’s level of abstraction produces serious theoretical error.; Categorization enables thought but inevitably blurs the individual features it generalizes. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1154; Orientalism’s power of generalization converts real people into undifferentiated abstractions. — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 649 (+1 more)
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Farhan Samanani, Conviviality and its others: for a…, 87
Broader Connections
- Categorization enables thought but inevitably blurs the individual features it generalizes.
#corroborates(0.90) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1154 - Misusing a concept’s level of abstraction produces serious theoretical error.
#corroborates(0.85) - Orientalism’s power of generalization converts real people into undifferentiated abstractions.
#exemplifies(0.82) — Edward W. Said, Orientalism, 649 - The term neoliberalism has become too vague to serve as a precise analytical framework.
#exemplifies(0.80) — Andrew deWaard, Derivative Media, 68