Retroduction as mixed-methods triangulation in economic research: Reorienting economics into social science

By P. Downward, A. Mearman. 2006

335 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper argues that mixed-methods triangulation can be understood as the manifestation of retroduction, the logic of inference espoused by critical realism. As such, it can provide the basis upon which different insights upon the same phenomenon can be sensibly combined and thus has the potential to unite aspects of different traditions of economic and social thought. In this regard, the paper supports Lawson's view that the exclusive insistence on mathematical and statistical modelling in economics is misguided. The paper explores how disciplinary boundaries may be broken down and interdisciplinary social science, of which economics can be a part, established. Copyright 2007, Oxford University Press.

Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, History and Philosophy of Science, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/907039bb71fda7d4fdeb53e1abb2e2e514ce937c

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Citations in the corpus

Methodological Implications of Critical Realism for Mixed-Methods Research (2013, methodology): “Retroduction allows researchers to move between the knowledge of empirical phenomena as expressed through events to the creation of explanations (or hypothesizing) in ways that hold “ontological depth” and can potentially give some indications on the existence of unobservable entities (Downward and ”
Theorizing practice in economic geography: Foundations, challenges, and possibilities (2011, neutral): “, surveys, questionnaires) methodological approaches (Denzin, 1970; 1989; Baxter and Eyles, 1997; Lawson, 1997; Yeung, 1997; Downward et al., 2002; Yeung, 2003; Olsen, 2004; Castellacci, 2006; Downward and Mearman, 2007).”
Innovation intermediaries and collaboration: Knowledge–based practices and internal value creation (2018, neutral): “…the bene ﬁ t of accessing the innovation ecosystem knowledge base using external sources and actively attempting to develop new relationships may be questionable as new knowledge/relationships might not be reliable or prove to be successful (Davenport et al., 1998; Dyer and Nobeoka, 2000).”
How firms collaborate with public research organizations : The evolution of proximity dimensions in successful innovation projects (2016, methodology): “To avoid conflating multiple levels of analysis, a strategy of retroduction was used (Downward and Mearman, 2007).”
For Polanyian Economic Geographies (2013, methodology): “Polanyi’s objection was not to formal methods, such as modeling and quantifi cation, the role of which (7) On retroduction in heterodox economics, see Fleetwood (2001), Downward and Mearman (2007), and Jones and Murphy (2011).”
Realism as a Stance for Mixed Methods Research (2010, background): “…that concepts can be measured, counted, manipulated, and cross-classified), and it provides a philosophical and methodological foundation for a broad set of alternative approaches (see Downward, Finch & Ramsay, 2002; Downward & Mearman, 2007; Fleetwood, 1999; Lawson, 1989, 1997, 1998, 2001).”