Nature’s Experiments and Natural Experiments in the Social Sciences

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7102409
AutoresMichael S Morgan (0000-0003-3471-2180, London School of Economics and Political Science, autor correspondente), Mary S Morgan (London School of Economics and Political Science)
Ano2013
Volume43
Fascículo3
Páginas341-357
Data de publicação2013-06-20
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoPhilosophy of the Social Sciences (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0048-3931 • E-ISSN: 1552-7441
EditoraSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0048393113489100
OpenAlexW2021021355
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas17
Referências citadas15

This article explores the characteristics of research sites that scientists have called “natural experiments” to understand and develop usable distinctions for the social sciences between “Nature’s or Society’s experiments” and “natural experiments.” In this analysis, natural experiments emerge as the retro-fitting by social scientists of events that have happened in the social world into the traditional forms of field or randomized trial experiments. By contrast, “Society’s experiments” figure as events in the world that happen in circumstances that are already sufficiently “controlled” to be open for direct analysis without reconstruction work

Epistemology · Field (mathematics · Natural (archaeology · Natural science · Social research · Social science · Sociology · USable · Computational and Text Analysis Methods · Computer Science · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · History · Mathematics · Philosophy · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research