ABSTRACT
As this volume tries to illustrate performatively, critical realism does make a difference, and it does so on a number of different levels and in a variety of different contexts. This is no less the case in the field of social theory, the field from which, and about which, I will be writing in this chapter. I have tried to crystallise in the title the crux of the argument that I will be advancing. It can be read, or at least that was my intention, in two ways. On the one hand, it can be taken to mean that critical realism does, in fact, make a difference in the realm of social theory. That is, that critical realism adds something to our understanding of how social theory works and how we should work with it. Thus, in the first part of this chapter I will very briefly draw out the implications for social theory which are contained in critical realism’s claim for the regulatory function that meta-theory has for substantive theoretical development, as well as the general role that social theory plays in the process of explanation.
