Causal Analysis, Systems Analysis, and Multilevel Analysis: Philosophy and Epistemology

Abstract

The previous chapters, written by specialists in different social sciences, have examined multilevel analysis as a new methodology that can encompass multiple levels of aggregation, with a view to answering novel questions raised in their respective fields. [n education, for example, the multilevel approach can analyse an individual’s responses to tests as a function not only of individual characteristics, but at the same time of the characteristics of the student’s class, school, neighbourhood, etc. The joint analysis of these aggregation levels provides a far more accurate view of the effects of the characteristics than a study conducted at a single level. The contributors to this volume have therefore adopted an essentially methodological approach to show how multilevel analysis can overcome the difficulties encountered when working at a single aggregation level, whether individual or aggregated. By observing some of the gaps and inconsistencies between the results obtained using other analytical methods, the authors have shown the value of the multilevel approach, which solves most of these problems and offers an overall view of the characteristics operating at each aggregation level.