A Necessary Debate

Abstract

The rigor and vitality of a discipline, indeed the ability to make socially meaningful contributions, is founded not solely on the accumulation of observational data but also on principled and reasoned debate concerning theory and method. For that reason, I wish to thank the editorial team at JMA for inviting me to respond to the paper by de Haas, Leppard, Waagen and Wilkinson. To the degree that the authors have missed or misconstrued several of my arguments is no doubt due in part to my own failings in presenting them. Significantly, however, it is also the result of differing intellectual commitments. I address this key, latter point first, and then respond to some of what I consider more minor points.