Realism and Social Science offers the reader an authoritative and compelling guide to critical realism and its implications for social theory and for the practice of social science. It offers an alternative both to approaches which are overly confident about the possibility of a successful social science and those which are defeatist about any possibility of progress in understanding the social world. Written by one of the leading social theorists in the field, it demonstrates the virtues of critical realism for theory and empirical research in social science, and provides a critical engagement with leading non-realist approaches.
Table of Content
PART ONE: INTRODUCING CRITICAL REALISM
Introduction
Key Features of Critical Realism in Practice
A Brief Introduction
PART TWO: POSTMODERN-REALIST ENCOUNTERS
Introduction
Realism for Sceptics
Postmodernism and the Three `Po Mo′ Flips
Essentialism, Social Constructionism and Beyond
PART THREE: Social Science and Space
Introduction
Space and Social Theory
Geohistorical Explanation and Problems of Narrative
PART FOUR: CRITICAL REALISM: FROM CRITIQUE TO NORMATIVE THEORY
Introduction
Critical Realism and the Limits to Critical Social Science
Ethics Unbound
For a Normative Turn in Social Theory
About the author
Andrew Sayer is Professor of Social Theory and Political Economy at Lancaster University.
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