The Logic of Social Research

Arthur L Stinchcombe author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:The University of Chicago Press

Published:28th Jun '05

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

The Logic of Social Research cover

Arthur L. Stinchcombe has earned a reputation as a leading practitioner of methodology in sociology and related disciplines. Throughout his distinguished career he has championed the idea that to be an effective sociologist, one must use many methods. This incisive work introduces students to the logic of those methods. The Logic of Social Research orients students to a set of logical problems that all methods must address to study social causation. Almost all sociological theory asserts that some social conditions produce other social conditions, but the theoretical links between causes and effects are not easily supported by observation. Observations cannot directly show causation, but they can reject or support causal theories with different degrees of credibility. As a result, sociologists have created four main types of methods that Stinchcombe terms quantitative, historical, ethnographic, and experimental to support their theories. Each method has value, and each has its uses for different research purposes. Accessible and astute, The Logic of Social Research offers an image of what sociology is, what it's all about, and what the craft of the sociologist consists of.

"This is an important book. Arthur Stinchcombe introduces some much-needed practical wisdom into the topic of sociological methodology. Some of the silliest debates in the field seem to be about which method is superior to the rest. Stinchcombe lays waste to this notion and shows that we learn more when multiple methods are applied to the same problem. There is no other book like it." - Joel Podolny, Harvard University"

ISBN: 9780226774916

Dimensions: 24mm x 15mm x 3mm

Weight: 709g

344 pages