ABSTRACT
The question of whether realism makes a difference goes directly to the heart of a number of issues that have been debated widely and warmly in recent years. Most often these issues have had to do with notions of relativism, rationality, science and objectivity. Hacking (1999) refers to such notions as ‘escalator words’; they raise the stakes in any argument, sending protagonists scuttling to wellentrenched reserve positions from where they can safely defend their core beliefs. As far as possible, I shall endeavour to avoid the escalator: rather than rush upwards towards the big confrontations, my aim is to identify some of the potential benefits for social researchers of adopting what I have referred to elsewhere as a modest realism (Carter 2000).
