Introduction

Abstract

This linkage between ideas and observations, which suggests that ideas be evaluated by objective means, pinpoints the need in any science for developing such means, and further emphasizes the fact that the testing of theory is dependent upon the availability of robust methods. I have designated the development of such means as “middle range research.” It is not middle range because it is unimportant. Quite to the contrary, it is middle range because it links observations and experiences as to what the world is like to ideas—theories (if you will) that seek to tell us why the world is the way it appears to be. Middle range research results in the production of knowledge and understanding that may grow, serving as the research-based paradigmatic underpinning of science. (Binford 1982:128–129)