Social science methodology: A unified framework

Social Science Methodology is the new thoroughly rewritten version of the successful first edition (subtitled: ‘A Criterial Framework’). In the introductory chapter, Gerring introduces the reader to the issue of epistemological and methodological pluralism in the social sciences and presents his view of a unified framework, which consists of three distinct tasks associated with, respectively, hypothesis formulation, description and causation. Within each of these, Gerring revisits his ‘criterial’ approach of the previous edition where the treatment of each topic is associated with a set of criteria that define the best practice. The book is therefore organized according to these tasks, which correspond to three distinct sections labeled ‘general’, ‘description’ and ‘causation’. In the general section, the book starts with the notions of discovery and appraisal, which guide the logic of inquiry and continues with a set of criteria for hypothesis formulation. The rest of the section is dedicated to the criteria surrounding social science analyses as a whole, namely, accuracy, sampling, cumulation and theoretical fit. In this respect, Gerring’s focus on replication and transparency as criteria for best practice in social science analysis is particularly welcome. The next section focuses on what the author labels ‘description’, although most emphasis is placed on what other books label as ‘measurement’. The section begins with the issue of concept formation, an area in which Gerring has contributed much original work. In this case, the criteria are accompanied with a survey of strategies for conceptualization that could help the reader put the theory in practice. The following chapter in this section is dedicated to what Gerring calls ‘mere description’, a long-abandoned (in favor of causal analysis) aspect of social research where he guides the reader through the logic of constructing typologies. The section closes with a chapter that includes a useful discussion of strategies for measurement as well as an extensive example on measuring corruption.