Describing Description (and Keeping Causality): The Case of Academic Articles on Food and Eating

Abstract

Recently, Savage and Burrows argued that there is an ‘empirical crisis’ in sociology. They concluded that sociologists should abandon a focus on causality for descriptions that ‘link narrative, numbers, and images’. This article takes up their challenge by using Wordle to depict the changing focus in academic articles on food and eating since 1950. Using this illustrative example, it is argued that their call to abandon causality is problematic for three reasons. First, interpreting description necessarily depends on a causal framework. Second, since description becomes part of a mode of production in which context and meaning are inscribed, the question is not whether to reject causality in favour of description, but rather what kinds of description help to explore causality. Third, going beyond description is ethically advantageous for a critical sociological programme. The article concludes that, contrary to Savage and Burrows, description and causality go hand in hand.