Concept structures range from weakest link to best shot by substitutability

Evidence

Redundancy, however, is absolutely central to the whole chapter, because redundancy is all about substitutability. The Continuum Guideline suggests always thinking about the underlying continuum of a concept. The central underlying continuum of concept structure is substitutability. The key question is the extent to which high values on one dimension substitute for low values on the other. The substitutability continuum has three core regions. At the bottom are “weakest link” structures, where the default is the minimum, but there are weakest link measures that allow less substitutability than the minimum. At the opposite end of the spectrum lie the “best shot” structures, for which the maximum is the default. These allow for very high levels of substitutability. In the middle zone lies the “mean” aggregation class, which allows for some substitutability between dimensions. Of course, the average is the default mean aggregation procedure in this zone. This chapter introduces systematically these three classes of concept structures. — Gary Goertz, Social Science Concepts and Measurement, 926

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines the three core regions of the substitutability continuum: weakest link (minimum), mean (average), and best shot (maximum).
• XREF: Connects to earlier chapters’ Continuum Guideline and to the redundancy/substitutability framing used across the book’s measurement rules.