This paper responds to Nick Gane's “Against a descriptive turn”. I argue that descriptive research strategies are more open and inclusive than those which purport to be causal where explanatory adequacy is assessed by expert insiders. I also show how open descriptive strategies can assist a wider explanatory purpose when these are conceived in non-positivist ways. I argue that epochalist sociology lacks an adequate temporal ontology because it collapses descriptive specificity back into overarching epoch descriptions. Finally, I argue that if the entire range of publications associated with the Great British Class Survey are considered, that it has demonstrated a productive way of recognising the significance of class which has facilitated major research advances in its wake.
CITATION STYLE
Savage, M. (2020, January 1). What makes for a successful sociology? A response to “Against a descriptive turn.” British Journal of Sociology. Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-4446.12713
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