What is it about?
The article argues that there is some lesson to be learned from past the debates about theory comparison. Different methodological approaches for theory comparison can be integrated into a common framework. This methodological framework is itself developed by comparison: a hermeneutic method of theory comparison is used to systematize and integrate methodological ideas according to their role in enabling empirical competition between sociological theories. The article argues that criteria for the assessment of the empirical fruitfulness of theories should be differentiated according to the problems they try to solve.
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Why is it important?
Sociology is confronted with a vexing multiplicity of theories, 'approaches' and research paradigms. The ability to critically compare them is essential for the dialogue in the discipline and for anyone trying to orient herself in the discipline. The paper tries to give some methodological guidance of how to do that.
Perspectives
Many ideas in this paper could only be hinted at, so that I would like to develop them further and showing the concrete fruitfulness of an explicitly comparative approach to sociological theory.
Fabian Anicker
Westfalische Wilhelms-Universitat Munster
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Theorienvergleich als methodologischer Standard der soziologischen Theorie, Zeitschrift für Soziologie, January 2017, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/zfsoz-2017-1005.
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