Opening the Black Box. How the Study of Social Mechanisms Can Benefit from the Use of Explanatory Mixed Methods

Bibliographic Data

ID7101154
AuthorsJ Stolz (0000-0002-3849-7812, corresponding author)
Year2016
Volume38
Issue1
Pages257-286
Publication date2016-04-18
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnalyse & Kritik (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0171-5860 • E-ISSN: 2365-9858
PublisherDe Gruyter (PUBLISHER • DE)
DOI10.1515/auk-2016-0112
OpenAlexW2340644396
LanguageEN
Citations received4

This article argues that analytical sociology an approach that attempts to study social mechanisms ‘without, black boxes’ can benefit from the use of explanatory mixed methods. Analytical sociologists mainly relate their theoretical and agent-based models to representative surveys and experiments. While their central claim is to find and test the actual mechanisms that have produced the explanandum. the mechanisms they postulate often remain speculative. Neither agent-based models, nor experiments or mainstream quantitative methods, give access to some of the central elements of the causal mechanisms and the relevant subjective and objective contextual parameters. One of the most important reasons for this lies in the fact that social reality is changing fast., characterized by strong diversity and complexified by the phenomenon of cultural meanings. I argue that by creating and testing the models of analytical sociology with explanatory mixed methods, researchers have the possibility of getting closer to their object of research and therefore of having the chance to create more valid explanations

Causal model · Diversity (politics · Economics · Epistemology · Explanatory model · Mainstream · Object (grammar · Phenomenon · Political science · Positive economics · Sociology · Computer Science · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Law · Mathematics

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