ABSTRACT
THIS BOOK IS AN EFFORT to clarify the concept of social conflict, and in so doing to examine the use of this concept in empirical sociological research.
Concepts may be thought of as being neither true nor false; they are apt or inept, clear or vague, fruitful or useless. They are tools designed to capture relevant aspects of reality and thus "constitute the definitions (or prescriptions) of what is to be observed."1
