Causation as a Generative Process. The Elaboration of an Idea for the Social Sciences and an Application to an Analysis of an Interdependent Dynamic Social System

Hans-Peter Blossfeld ()
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Hans-Peter Blossfeld: Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, University of Bamberg

Chapter Chapter 5 in Causal Analysis in Population Studies, 2009, pp 83-109 from Springer

Abstract: The empirical investigation of causal relationships is an important but difficult scientific endeavor. In the social sciences, two understandings of causation have guided the empirical analysis of causal relationships: (1) Causation as robust dependence and (2) causation as consequential manipulation. Both approaches clearly have strengths and weaknesses for the social sciences which will be described in detail in this chapter. Based on this discussion, a third understanding of causation as generative process, proposed by David Cox, is then further developed. This idea seems to be particularly valuable for modern social sciences because it leads to a longitudinal analysis of social processes and can easily be combined with a narrative in terms of an actor’s objectives, knowledge, reasoning, and decisions (methodological individualism).

Keywords: Transition Rate; Causal Inference; Unobserved Heterogeneity; Marriage Rate; Event History Analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:ssdmcp:978-1-4020-9967-0_5

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4020-9967-0_5

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