Agent skill

Soctheory Literature Positioning

by brycewang-stanford in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills

A skill your agent uses when locating a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript in a tradition and conversation — naming whose theory you extend, challenge, or synthesize, and avoiding sibling-journal…

MITAuto-check passedMarketing & SEO

Install Soctheory Literature Positioning

skills CLI
$ npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill soctheory-literature-positioning -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills soctheory-literature-positioning --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/Sociological-Theory-Skills/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning .claude/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
soctheory-literature-positioning
GitHub stars
1.2k
Token cost
~1.3k tokens
SKILL.md length
551 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
2,387
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

A skill your agent uses when locating a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript in a tradition and conversation — naming whose theory you extend, challenge, or synthesize, and avoiding sibling-journal…

  • Works in 4 steps: Extend — accept a tradition's premises… → Challenge — show a tradition's concept… → Reconstruct (history of theory) —… → …
  • Locating a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript in a tradition and conversation — naming whose theory you extend
  • SKILL.md covers When to trigger, Why positioning is decisive at…, Map the live conversations and The four positioning moves, plus 4 more sections
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md

What it does

Soctheory Literature Positioning is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when locating a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript in a tradition and conversation — naming whose theory you extend, challenge, or synthesize, and avoiding sibling-journal misattribution. Positions the argument; it does NOT build the concepts (soctheory-theory-construction) or frame the novelty (soctheory-contribution-framing).

Its SKILL.md is about 1.3k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It sits in Marketing & SEO, covering Positioning and messaging. The repository describes itself as: Journal-specific Claude Code/Codex skill packs covering mainstream journals — AER, QJE, Nature, Cell, 管理世界, 经济研究 & 200+ more — your fast track to getting published. | 覆盖主流期刊的… The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Locating a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript in a tradition and conversation — naming whose theory you extend
  • Avoiding sibling-journal misattribution

Example prompts

  • “/soctheory-literature-positioning”

Workflow steps

4 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Extend — accept a tradition's premises and push its concepts into new terrain.
  2. Challenge — show a tradition's concept is incoherent, under-specified, or wrong, and repair it.
  3. Reconstruct (history of theory) — re-read a classic (Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, Bourdieu)
  4. Synthesize — bridge two conversations so their combination yields propositions neither

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 932eb23. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    No URLs in SKILL.md.

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Soctheory Literature Positioning loads about 1.3k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 92 tokens; SKILL.md has 551 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~92
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~1.3k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills at commit 932eb23, republished under its MIT licence (© brycewang-stanford). 551 words, ~1,267 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
soctheory-literature-positioning
description
Use when locating a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript in a tradition and conversation — naming whose theory you extend, challenge, or synthesize, and avoiding sibling-journal misattribution. Positions the argument; it does NOT build the concepts (soctheory-theory-construction) or frame the novelty (soctheory-contribution-framing).

Literature Positioning: Which Tradition, Which Conversation (soctheory-literature-positioning)

When to trigger

  • The theoretical problem is set, but you cannot name the conversation it lives in
  • Reviewers would ask "whose theory are you arguing with?"
  • Your references read as a flat list rather than a positioned intervention
  • You are unsure whether a famous paper you lean on was even published in ST (a real trap)

Why positioning is decisive at ST

At a theory journal, the first reviewer question is what tradition are you intervening in and how? ST work almost always enters one (or bridges two) of the live conversations in sociological theory and makes a deliberate move within it: extend, challenge, reconstruct, or synthesize. A paper that does not place itself reads as freestanding speculation and is desk-reject-prone. Reed's "Justifying Sociological Knowledge" (ST 2008, 26(2):101–129) is a reminder that the tradition you stand in also fixes the warrant you owe.

Map the live conversations

ST is pluralistic. Identify which stream(s) your problem belongs to and read the recent ST pieces in it — reviewers are usually drawn from exactly that stream.

ConversationTouchstones (durable, not volatile)Typical move
Field theoryBourdieu; field/capital/habitusreconceptualize a field's logic
Social mechanisms / analytical sociologymechanism-based explanationspecify a new mechanism
Pragmatism / cultural-cognitivehabit, problem-situations, dual-processre-theorize action/culture
Cultural sociologymeaning, classification, performancesharpen a cultural concept
Systems theoryLuhmann; communication, differentiationextend a systems distinction
Relational sociologytransactions, ties, processesshift substance → relation
Metatheory / philosophy of explanationwarrant, interpretation, abductionclarify a logic of inference

The four positioning moves

  1. Extend — accept a tradition's premises and push its concepts into new terrain.
  2. Challenge — show a tradition's concept is incoherent, under-specified, or wrong, and repair it.
  3. Reconstruct (history of theory) — re-read a classic (Weber, Durkheim, Simmel, Bourdieu) so that the tradition does new work today.
  4. Synthesize — bridge two conversations so their combination yields propositions neither could state alone.

State your move explicitly: "We extend field theory by…", not "We draw on Bourdieu."

Show full SKILL.md (222 more words)Show less

Sibling-journal misattribution guard (verify before citing)

Theory readers know the canon, and a wrong venue attribution costs credibility immediately. Several papers people "remember" as ST were published elsewhere:

  • Emirbayer, "Manifesto for a Relational Sociology" — American Journal of Sociology 1997, NOT ST.
  • Gross, "A Pragmatist Theory of Social Mechanisms" — American Sociological Review 2009, NOT ST.
  • Martin, "What Is Field Theory?" — American Journal of Sociology 2003, NOT ST.
  • Lizardo, "Improving Cultural Analysis" — American Sociological Review 2017, NOT ST (his dual-process paper, Lizardo et al. 2016, IS in ST).

When in doubt, confirm the venue on journals.sagepub.com (ST is stx) before listing a paper as ST. See resources/exemplars/library.md for a web-verified ST set.

Checklist

  • The conversation(s) the paper intervenes in are named
  • The positioning move is explicit (extend / challenge / reconstruct / synthesize)
  • The recent, live ST conversation is cited — not only the classics
  • Every attributed paper's venue is verified (no ST/ASR/AJS mix-ups)
  • The references read as a positioned intervention, not a flat list
  • Classical sources (Weber/Durkheim/Simmel/Bourdieu) are read in service of the move, not name-dropped

Anti-patterns

  • "We draw on Bourdieu/Luhmann/pragmatism" with no specified move
  • A reference list that surveys everything and intervenes in nothing
  • Citing a sibling-journal paper as if it appeared in ST (canon error)
  • Engaging only seminal works and ignoring the current ST conversation
  • Positioning against a strawman version of the tradition

Output format

【Conversation(s)】[field theory / mechanisms / pragmatism / cultural / systems / relational / metatheory]
【Positioning move】extend / challenge / reconstruct / synthesize
【Whose theory】[named tradition + key interlocutors]
【Venue check】all attributions verified (ST vs. ASR/AJS): yes / fix [...]
【Recent ST conversation cited】yes / add [...]
【Next step】soctheory-theory-construction

© brycewang-stanford, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in Sociological-Theory-Skills/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning of brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 932eb23

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B2b Playbookweilun88313/B2B-Playbook203—~3.1kAutomated safety check: PassProprietary

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Categories

Questions about Soctheory Literature Positioning

What does Soctheory Literature Positioning do?

A skill your agent uses when locating a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript in a tradition and conversation — naming whose theory you extend, challenge, or synthesize, and avoiding sibling-journal…. Soctheory Literature Positioning is an agent skill from brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills. Use when locating a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript in a tradition and conversation — naming whose theory you extend, challenge, or synthesize, and avoiding sibling-journal misattribution.

When should I use Soctheory Literature Positioning?

Soctheory Literature Positioning fits situations like: locating a Sociological Theory (ST) manuscript in a tradition and conversation — naming whose theory you extend; avoiding sibling-journal misattribution.

How do I install Soctheory Literature Positioning in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill soctheory-literature-positioning -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (Sociological-Theory-Skills/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .claude/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Soctheory Literature Positioning in Codex?

Run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill soctheory-literature-positioning -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (Sociological-Theory-Skills/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills) into .agents/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Soctheory Literature Positioning in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills --skill soctheory-literature-positioning -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning, .gemini/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning, .github/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning and .opencode/skills/soctheory-literature-positioning in your project.

What does Soctheory Literature Positioning need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Soctheory Literature Positioning is instructions for the agent only.

Does Soctheory Literature Positioning access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Soctheory Literature Positioning safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Soctheory Literature Positioning use?

Soctheory Literature Positioning is published under the MIT licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Soctheory Literature Positioning use?

About 1.3k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 5.1k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Soctheory Literature Positioning?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Soctheory Literature Positioning: Marketing Os (Yuzzyuk/marketing-os, 540 stars), Revenue Centric Design (heliocosta-dev/revenue-centric-design, 740 stars), Startup Positioning (ferdinandobons/startup-skill, 1.2k stars) and Stanley Druckenmiller Investment (tradermonty/claude-trading-skills, 3k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Soctheory Literature Positioning?

brycewang-stanford (a GitHub user) maintains it in brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills, which has 1,231 GitHub stars. The repository holds 2,387 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on September 27, 2026.

Source: brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.