ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to clarifying what a theory is, from the perspective of critical realism. It explores the components of theories – concepts and describes different ways of relating theories to data in research practice. The chapter discusses the critical realist view, it is essential to distinguish between the different theoretical languages that exist within social sciences. Social scientific skill in essence is a matter of analysing, developing, and applying concepts and theories. The ability to switch between theorizing on different levels of abstraction and observations of concrete reality, without yielding either to arbitrary theorizing or to short-sighted observations, is in the core of social science working procedure. The relational character of concepts is manifested in the triadic conceptualization, so common in social science. One of the most significant contributions to the discussion of the role of theory in social scientific research is Robert Merton’s argument for middle-range theory.
