Nomic account

1
Nomic account
Independent Vars
Dependent Vars
Mediating Vars
2
Narrative account
Narratives are AND-graphs with W, states of the
world t, time a, actions and actors ß,
?. (Abell, 2004)
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• (Generative) Structuralism
• Event structure analysis (Heise)
• Sequence analysis (Abott)
• -Organisational grammars (Pentland)
• -Multi-Agent modelling

Generalisation-Analysis of Variance-Time
Series Analysis-Stochastic Modelling
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What is an acceptable causal link?
Nomic causality Each and every causal link
inserted into a chronology must derive from a
comparative and general understanding of causality
Action causality Human actions, to the extent
that the consequences of these actions are
observable, can be treated as causes of changes
in the world.
5
Narrative account (Builds on necessary
cause) Explanation
Nomic account (Builds on necessary
sufficient cause) Comparison generalisation
Comparison generalisation
Explanation
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From tension to constructive tension

• Each side ought to see value in the respective
  other type of explanatory account (or at least
  accept the epistemological differences)
• Pragmatically, different analysis can be
  performed on the same type of data -gt look for
  synergies

7
Qualitative Methods
Quantitative Methods
Event- Based Representa- tions
Variable- Based Representa- tions
General event structure data model
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