Abstract
In a recent collection of articles on the significance of the work by the American sociologist R.K. Merton, Charles Tilly (2010, p. 55) argued for mechanism-based explanations of the middle range. In his own words, ‘mechanistic explanations offer a distinctive, superior grasp of how social processes actually work’. Tilly’s plea fits in a development in which mechanism-based explanations are increasingly gaining attention. This development is in response to shortcomings in causal explanations and is also expressive of the conviction that proper explanations should detail the ‘cogs and wheels’ or the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the causal process through which the outcomes to be explained are brought about (Elster, 1989; Hedström and Ylikoski, 2010; Tilly, 2005; 2010). Another important factor is the explicit interest in developing a theory of action that combines explanations at the macro-level with explanations at the micro-level (Coleman, 1986; 1990).
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© 2016 Godfried Engbersen, Erik Snel and Alina Esteves
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Engbersen, G., Snel, E., Esteves, A. (2016). Migration Mechanisms of the Middle Range: On the Concept of Reverse Cumulative Causation. In: Bakewell, O., Engbersen, G., Fonseca, M.L., Horst, C. (eds) Beyond Networks. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137539212_10
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