Causal Processes and their Warrant

Nancy Cartwright is Professor of Philosophy, Durham University and Distinguished Professor, University of California at San Diego. Her books include How the Laws of Physics Lie (1983), The Dappled World (Cambridge 1999), Hunting Causes and Using Them (Cambridge 2007), Evidence-based Policy: Doing it Better (2012), and The Tangle of Science (2023). Eileen Munro is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy, London School of Economics. She is a philosopher and is a qualified social worker. Her academic work has combined these two strands focusing on research methods and causal processes in social work practice and in organisational functioning. John Pemberton is an Honorary Fellow in the Philosophy Department at Durham University. He works on the ontology of change, and on causation, processes, mechanisms, powers and laws of nature.

• Acknowledgments; Overview; Introduction; Technical note: production and difference-making; Technical note: evidential pluralism and singular causation; Part I. A Theory of Singular Causation: 1. Towards a thick theory of singular causal processes; 1.1 Formal relations; 1.2 Processes and mediators; 1.3 INUS conditions; 1.4 Activities; Technical note: causation, continuity and activities; 1.5 Tendency principles; Technical note: science for a fragile world (Robert Northcott); 1.6 Situation-Specific Causal Equation Models (SCEMs); 1.7 Underlying systems; 1.8 What we have done in part 1; Part II. What's Warrant for Singular Causal Processes and Why: 2. What happens in part 2; 2.1 Evidence-role maps: marshalling the evidence; Technical note: process triggers; Technical note: what you can gain from learning that the events in the boxes occur; 2.2 What evidence should you collect?; 2.3 What should you do with all this information now you have assembled and organised it?; 2.4 What we have done in Part 2; Part III. Case Study of the Implementation of Signs of Safety in M, a UK Agency Providing a Child Protection Service: 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Background on child protection services and signs of safety; 3.3 What happened in M; 3.4 Did all this Help?; 3.5 Constructing evidence-role maps; 3.6 Reflections; 3.7 What we have done in Part 3; Bibliography; Index.

'This is a detailed and thought-provoking account of how to evidence single-case causal claims. It is clear and engaging-I would recommend it to all evaluators and researchers interested in evaluation methodology.' Jon Williamson, University of Manchester