Driven to abstraction? Critical realism and the search for the 'inner connection' of social phenomena

This paper examines critically the method of abstraction offered by critical realism. Our main argument is that critical realism fails to articulate the synthetic side to abstraction. For this reason, the critical realist method is unable to capture the 'inner connection' of social phenomena. We argue that critical realism is prone to extend a method (partially) applicable to the local and specific level of analysis to the historical level. The paper develops a method of abstraction, 'systematic abstraction', that is appropriate to this historical level. We argue that systematic abstraction constitutes a radical addition to critical realism, one which challenges the fundamental precepts of the critical realist approach to abstraction. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.