Social arv - set i et kritisk realistisk perspektiv - VIA University College

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to illustrate the point that
methodology matters! I want to point to the necessity for
researchers to explicate and account for the methodological
and theoretical point of view that are guiding their research.
I try to illustrate how different theoretical perspectives will
implicate different understandings of the phenomenon in
question and different understandings of the causes behind
the phenomenon. My subject is the social problem in Scandinavian
social research called “social inheritance”, the social
transmission of social problems from one generation to
another, connected with the reproduction of social inequality.
In my analysis I contrast a positivist, empirical analytical
approach with a critical realist approach. I argue for the
many advantages of the later and illustrate the approach by
an analysis of a concrete social problem, i. e. violent behaviour
among young girls. As a means of questioning the accusation
that has been raised against the concept of “social
inheritance” by Danish scholars that the concept is “deterministic”,
I endeavour to see social inheritance as a lifelong
process. I connection with my endeavours to clarify and redefine
the concept I discuss the concept of “vicious circles”
– and explicitly draw on the British debate on “circles of
deprivation” versus “circles of inequality”. It is my argument
that the latter will be able to draw attention to the structural
– and contextual – factors that the mentioned Danish researchers
find missing in the concept of “social inheritance”.
My point is that precisely the critical realist approach is able
to do this, by identifying the interaction between several different
mechanisms in the interplay between enabling and
disabling mechanisms.
Key Words: social inheritance, critical realism, theoretical
perspectives, generative mechanisms.
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