Causal Explanation for Social Scientists

All social scientists, despite their differences on many issues, ask causal questions about the world. In this anthology, Andrew P. Vayda and Bradley B. Walters set forth strategy and methods to answer those questions. The selected readings, all illuminating causal explanation for social scientists, are not only by anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and human ecologists but also by philosophers, biologists, psychologists, historians, and specialists in other fields. The essays will appeal to those doing applied research on practical problems as well as those seeking mainly to satisfy their curiosity about the causes of whatever events or types of events interest them.

The volume is a compendium unlike most others. Rather than gather causal arguments about specific substantive outcomes, Vayda and Walters have assembled essays on how to question, how to reason, and why to do it a pragmatic fashion....The book is thoroughly coherent, strategically repetitive, and by no means unconvincing. Whether your field is human ecology, land change science, vulnerability research, or political ecology, there are sobering lessons here about bad methodological habits and good question writing....[I]t is hard not to come away from this collection with a renewed sense of energy and possibility. The world is filled with strange events and outcomes, after all, none of which have ready-made answers, and all of which can avail themselves to energetic observers with open minds. For a moment, viewed this way, it is possible to think that environment-society research might actually be filled with surprise. That is a welcome message.

Andrew P. Vayda is professor emeritus of anthropology and ecology at Rutgers University. Bradley B. Walters is professor of geography and environment at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick.