Jane Addams as a Resource for Developing a Reflexively Realist Social Science Practice

Abstract

The last four decades have seen a reflexive turn in the qualitative social sciences, an increased self-consciousness about the culturally contingent nature of our methods of representing human experience. This has given rise to a wave of experimentation in social science writing. Scholars have sought to develop research that does not just describe the object of study but also deliberately transforms the subject of the reader. In recent years, however, there is a growing sentiment that the obduracy of social reality seems to have been underemphasized in much of this experimentation. This article examines the inquiry methods of turn-of-the-century social theorist and settlement house founder, Jane Addams. The paper identifies themes in Addams’s approach to inquiry that was ahead of her time and relevant to this contemporary discussion. The paper argues that Addams has much to offer as an effort to develop a reflexively realist approach to social science inquiry.