Introduction: A Mechanism-Based Approach to Social Policy Research

Abstract

AbstractThis introductory chapter outlines a mechanism-based approach as a new way of explaining social policy. The chapter first introduces causal mechanisms as a concept and explores four strands of mechanism-based research in the social sciences: the methodology of qualitative research, generative mechanisms in critical realism, analytical sociology, and historical sociology and historical institutionalism. The chapter develops a process-oriented, actor-centred and modular conception of causal mechanisms, thereby distinguishing elementary causal mechanisms and complex causal mechanisms. It then showcases the benefits of a mechanism-based approach for social policy research. The key argument is that causal mechanisms enable explanations that can complement, expand, deepen, and possibly even correct analyses that rely on established social policy approaches. The chapter concludes with an overview of all chapters of the volume.