Causality and History: Modes of causal investigation in historical social sciences

• In Event: 1141 - Theoretical and Empirical Advances in Comparative Historical Sociology

Abstract

Studies at the confluence of history and social science address issues of causation in three ways: morphological, variable-centered, and genetic. These approaches to causal investigation differ with regard to their modus operandi, the types of patterns they look for, and their underlying assumptions. [note that nothing else in the abstract speaks directly to challenges] Morphological inquiries elaborate causal arguments by uncovering patterns in the empirical layout of socio-historical phenomena. To this end, these inquiries draw on descriptive techniques of data formalization. Variable-centered studies engage causal issues by investigating patterns of association among empirical categories under the twofold assumption that these categories a priori have explanatory relevance and each category empirically has the same meaning across cases. Genetic analyses ground their causal claims by identifying patterned processes of emergence or production.

Author

• Ivan Ermakoff, University of Wisconsin-Madison - EHESS