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Social Structural Inquiries, Part 1, Qualitative and Quantitative Theories

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Abstract

A tightened linkage between theory and data would enhance cumulative sociological knowledge. Toward that end this article selectivity reviews and develops social structural theories – theories that explain data. To reestablish that qualitative as well as quantitative theories can be structural, it presents examples that are organized by the qualitative versus quantitative division and the level of analysis – micro, meso, macro, and the world. Boudon’s structural schematics cover all of the examples, suggesting a basic perspective that can refocus much of the diversity of current sociology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cambridge-MIT Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Room 8-403, Cambridge, MA, 02139, U.S.A

    Robert B. Smith

  2. Social Structural Research Inc., 3 Newport Rd., Suite 6, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.

    Robert B. Smith

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  1. Robert B. Smith
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Correspondence to Robert B. Smith.

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Smith, R.B. Social Structural Inquiries, Part 1, Qualitative and Quantitative Theories. Qual Quant 39, 801–825 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-004-5009-7

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