The Limits of Social Science
eBook - ePub

The Limits of Social Science

Causal Explanation and Value Relevance

  1. 192 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Limits of Social Science

Causal Explanation and Value Relevance

About this book

What forms of knowledge can social science claim to produce? Does it employ causal analysis, and if so what does this entail? What role should values play in the work of social scientists? 

These are the questions addressed in this book. They are closely interrelated, and the answers offered here challenge many currently prevailing assumptions. They carry implications both for research practice, quantitative or qualitative, and for the public claims that social scientists make about the value of their work.

The arguments underpinning this challenge to conventional wisdom are laid out in detail in the first half of the book. In later chapters their implications are explored for two substantive areas of intrinsic importance: the study of social mobility and educational inequalities; and explanations for urban riots, notably those that took place in London and other English cities in the summer of 2011. 

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Yes, you can access The Limits of Social Science by Martyn Hammersley,Author in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Social Sciences & Social Science Research & Methodology. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Acknowledgments
  4. Introduction
  5. Causation and qualitative inquiry
  6. The problem of explanation in social science: a Weberian solution?
  7. On the role of values in social research
  8. From facts to value judgments? A critique of critical realism
  9. Can social science tell us whether a society is meritocratic? A Weberian critique
  10. We didn’t predict a riot! On the public contribution of social science
  11. Epilogue