Explaining Society

Berth Danermark is Professor of Sociology in the department of Social Science, and of Caring Sciences, University of Örebro, Sweden. Mats Ekström is Professor in Sociology in the Communication and Media Studies department, University of Örebro, Sweden. Liselotte Jakobsen is Senior Researcher at Karlstad University. Jan Ch. Karlsson is Professor of Sociology, in Working Life Science, Karlstad University.

• 1. Introduction 2. Science, Reality and Concepts 3. Conceptual Abstraction and Causality 4. Generalization, Scientific Inference and Models for Explanatory Social Science 5. Theory in the Methodology of Social Science 6. Critical Methodological Pluralism 7. Social Science and Practice 8. Conclusion

'Final year undergraduates, research students and researchers seeking an alternative to positivism or relativism are likely to find Explaining Society useful, as the authors are active researchers themselves and are alive to the kinds of questions their audience are likely to ask ... the authors write clearly and do not make the common mistake of purporting to write for students and researchers while actually writing over their heads for fellow philosophers.' - Journal of Critical Realism 1:1 Nov 2002