<strong>Realism and Social Science</strong> offers the reader an authoritative and compellingguide to critical realism and its implications for social theory an... » 

Realism and Social Science offers the reader an authoritative and compellingguide to critical realism and its implications for social theory and for thepractice of social science. It offers an alternative both to approaches whichare overly confident about the possibility of a successful social science andthose which are defeatist about any possibility of progress in understandingthe social world. Written by one of the leading social theorists in the fieldit demonstrates the virtues of critical realism for theory and empiricalresearch in social science and provides a critical engagement with leadingnonrealist approaches. «