A Measure for Measures: A Manifesto for Empirical Sociology

By Ray Pawson

Book Overview

First Published in 2004. This challenging and pioneering work aims to provide a measure (a set of standards) for measures (empirical data) in sociological research. It argues that the critique of positivism has resulted in a methodological impasse. Criticism has pulled the rug from under positivist method but left nothing in its place. In a devastating and systematic critique the author rejects phenomenological and relativist objections to sociological measurement. A wholly new model for the empirical substantiation of sociological theory is developed based on an examination of scientific measurement techniques and a reading of realist philosophical principles. Unlike many books heralding a new direction in sociology, A MEASURE FOR MEASURES goes beyond meta-theory, providing detailed examples to show how the 'new realism' can provide a viable empirical method.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415026598
• ISBN13: 9780415026598
• Release Date: January 1989
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 348 Pages
• Weight: 0.94 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.4" x 8.5"