Time and Method

Résumé

This book argues that there is a need to rethink time in social research. It builds on the author's previous research, which has dealt with the methodological challenge of studying change and continuity in the social world from a complex systems perspective. The book:

• sets out key empirical challenges of social time and temporality;
• problematizes time in key quantitative, qualitative and simulation social research methods;
• proposes some methodological alternatives that seek to tackle time and temporality empirically from innovative angles. In so doing, the book aims to provoke a wider discussion about the need for methodological innovation about how social time and temporality are addressed in empirical social research.

Contenu

Introduction. Part I: Complex Social Temposcapes 1. Time and Social Science 2. Time and Complexity 3. Time, Scale and Space Part II: How Methods Fail Social Time 4. Four Time Challenges 5. Time and Measurement 6. Time and Social Causation Part III: Methodological Alternatives 7. Time, Materiality and Method 8. Category and Classification 9. Continuity, Repetition and Boundary States. Conclusion