过程和情境:求真的社会科学因果方法
Process and Context: A Social Science Causal Approach
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摘要: 新时代社会科学研究如何进行通则性和特殊性解释的权衡?通过对机制因果和反事实分析主导下的方法论探索,归纳出基于过程与情境两种透视复杂现实世界的因果推断策略。在过程策略下,质性研究通过关键证据、长链分析等方式串联理论与研究对象。而在情境策略下,量化研究借助对干预机制、中介过程及未来状态的分析识别因果关系的核心效应。沿着过程和情境两种策略,社会科学经验研究能够形成证据与假设间更为紧密的联系,达成面向现实情形的特殊性因果解释。在这一预设下,借助费孝通《云南三村》与《江村经济》的研究,呈现过程和情境的因果推断策略如何应用于现实分析之中,以启发学者认知新方法潮流下社会科学实证研究的机遇与挑战。Abstract: How does current social science research balance generalized and specialized explanations? This question needs a systematic review of current methodology. We explored two leading ways of causal reasoning, mechanical causality and counterfactual causality, and concluded that there are two types of identification strategy. Mechanical causality relates to procedural strategy, which highlights key evidence and causal chain; counterfactual causality relates to contextual strategy, which stresses intervention, mediation, and selection. We find that the two strategies have enhanced social science’s ability to map hypotheses to evidence, but they may also encourage scholars to favor specialized explanations. With the use of procedural and contextual strategies, we reexamined Fei Hsiao-tung’s work on peasant life and rural economy, and elaborated the news and risks brought by current trends in social science methodology.
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