Theory can emerge inductively from long collective research rather than precede it

Evidence

PTC was a response to events concerning the robbery and injury of a man in Birmingham by three boys of mixed ethnic backgrounds. They were given long, exemplary sentences (twenty years, in one case). However, these events were not used to illustrate a preexisting theoretical argument. Written over six years, the prolonged, difficult process of collective research served as the intellectual “laboratory” out of which the ideas, theories, and arguments that animate the text were produced. The book ends by making connections and offering explanations that could not have been anticipated at the beginning. — Hall, Stuart, Essential Essays, Volume 1, 1038

Categorization

Category: Craft and Method

• ADDENDUM: The idea that theory emerges from concrete event analysis rather than being applied to cases connects to the ‘grafting’ theme in article 1, where abstraction grows organically out of particular material conditions.