Sociology

Causal questions motivate much research in sociology. In this chapter, we argue that applying Evidential Pluralism to sociology brings several advantages. Firstly, we show that Evidential Pluralism can shed light on the use of evidence in causal enquiry in sociology by means of two examples: one involving the connection between socioeconomic status and health, and one concerning the link between family background and educational attainment. We then show that Evidential Pluralism motivates two important approaches to the methodology of causal enquiry in sociology, namely that of Goldthorpe and that of Morgan and Winship. We conclude that Evidential Pluralism provides a unified approach to causal enquiry in sociology.