1. What makes for a successful sociology? A response to "Against a descriptive turn".
- Author
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Savage, Mike
- Subjects
- *
SOCIOLOGY , *DEBATE , *SOCIOLOGISTS , *EDUCATION research , *SOCIAL sciences - Abstract
This paper responds to Nick Gane's "Against a descriptive turn". I argue that descriptive research strategies are more open and inclusive than those which purport to be causal where explanatory adequacy is assessed by expert insiders. I also show how open descriptive strategies can assist a wider explanatory purpose when these are conceived in non‐positivist ways. I argue that epochalist sociology lacks an adequate temporal ontology because it collapses descriptive specificity back into overarching epoch descriptions. Finally, I argue that if the entire range of publications associated with the Great British Class Survey are considered, that it has demonstrated a productive way of recognising the significance of class which has facilitated major research advances in its wake. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2020
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