Daniel Little — Causal concepts

Summary of causation in social science, with link to paper, "Causal Explanation in Social Science" by Daniel Little (1995). Little also wrote a book on social causation entitled, Varieties of Social Explanation.

Understanding Society
Causal concepts
Daniel Little | Chancellor, University of Michigan at Dearborn

See also Little's "Current issues in causation research"

Daniel LIttle — Social causation

Good summary of basic issues and alternative theories.

Understanding Society
Social causation
Daniel LIttle

Daniel Little — Problems with causal mechanisms

There are a couple of problems with the theory of causal mechanisms that will be difficult to address. Jim Mahoney raises a general concern in "Beyond Correlational Analysis" -- there is no consensus about how to define a mechanism. But there are more specific problems as well.

Read it at Understanding Society
Problems with causal mechanisms
by Daniel Little

The around this pseudo-problem is to recognize that cause>effect is simply a way to indicate an irreversible direction of flow within a dynamic system instead of thinking in terms of the simplistic model of one "thing" causing another "thing." It is like mistaking language for labeling.

Sociologists tackling the financial crisis head-on

To understand the financial crisis, we must understand how organisations work. This is what sociologists are doing

Read it at The Guardian (UK)
Sociologists don't debate quibbles. We are tackling the financial crisis head-on
by John Brewer
(h/t Mark Thoma)

Some weekend reading — Daniel Little on social causation

On Thursday, March 8, 2012, I posted Daniel Little — Coleman on the elementary actor. Here is some follow-up on the methodological debate among sociologists, in particular between methodological individualists and institutionalists.

In Causal Pathways through Colman's Boat, Daniel Little examines the relationship of macro explanations and microfoundations.

In Microfoundations and Meso Causation, Daniel Little examines how macro explanations are not incompatible with microfoundations even when not traced out specifically in detail as narrow conceptions of methodological individualism require.

See also Daniel Little, New ideas about structure and agency for more on the debate between methodological individualism and institutionalism.

Finally, here Daniel Little's Current issues in causation research report on Causality and Explanation in the Sciences (2011), which summarizes the major current positions regarding causal explanation in the sciences.

From this, it should be pretty clear that most of the causal "intuitions" one sees on blogs by the non-rigorous are, well, not rigorous.

Peter Cooper shows how this methodological analysis applies to macroeconomics from an MMT viewpoint in Thinking in a Macro Way.

These few short posts cover a lot of territory if you have a chance to get to them.