Realism and Social Science

Andrew Sayer is Professor of Social Theory and Political Economy at Lancaster University.

`Sayer makes a direct contribution to the glaring academic divide between law finding, positivists and relativist post-modernist researchers, providing a middle pathway via critical realism (CR) to scientific explanation. He offers a clear definition of CR and successfully tackles various misunderstandings and critisims of this alternative approach. While this is not cutting edge CR, the arguments contained are well worth repeating to a discipline that is a little hard of hearing.... a number of Sayer′s provocative arguments have stayed with me, long after setting his book "to rest" on the shelf, challenging my own research agenda′ -Journal of Economic and Social Geography`This is a most welcome addition to the growing literature on critical realism and its implications for social science. For some time now a book has been needed that is inter-disciplinary in its content and lucid in its exposition of critical realism. The author is to be congratulated in aiming to fill this gap′ - Tim May, Dept of Sociology, University of Durham

• PART ONE: INTRODUCING CRITICAL REALISMIntroductionKey Features of Critical Realism in PracticeA Brief IntroductionPART TWO: POSTMODERN-REALIST ENCOUNTERSIntroductionRealism for ScepticsPostmodernism and the Three `PoMo′ FlipsEssentialism, Social Constructionism and BeyondPART THREE: Social Science and SpaceIntroductionSpace and Social TheoryGeohistorical Explanation and Problems of NarrativePART FOUR: CRITICAL REALISM: FROM CRITIQUE TO NORMATIVE THEORYIntroductionCritical Realism and the Limits to Critical Social ScienceEthics UnboundFor a Normative Turn in Social Theory