Ivarola, L. (2015) Explicación sin invarianza. El caso de los procesos socioeconómicos. Cinta moebio 54: 266-277

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Explanation without invariance. The case of socioeconomic processes

Dr. Leonardo Ivarola (ivarola@economicas.uba.ar) Facultad de Ciencias Económicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

Abstract

The main models of scientific explanation assume the need for some kind of stable knowledge (laws, invariant regularities, mechanisms, etc.) for assembling a good explanatory argument. While these approaches are useful in the natural sciences, it is doubtful that they are similarly applicable in the socioeconomic realm. In this paper it is expected to show that the logic of socioeconomic processes of being "possibility trees" or "open-ended results" makes regularities the exception rather than the rule. Alternatively, a mode of explanation that focuses on contextual factors and people actions is proposed.

Keywords: explanation, invariance, mechanisms, socioeconomic processes, possibility trees.