sf-theory-building

Theory & Argument Building (sf-theory-building)

At Social Forces a result is not a contribution until it is attached to an argument a general social-science reader can carry elsewhere. SF's reputation rests on rigor and on findings that mean something theoretically. This skill turns results into theory: explicit mechanisms, scope conditions, and observable implications, in the idiom appropriate to your kind of work — stated economically, because the reference-inclusive 10,000-word cap leaves no room to ramble.

When to trigger

• The empirics are strong but the "so what / why" is thin
• A reviewer said the paper is "atheoretical," "descriptive," or "just a finding"
• You need to state mechanisms, assumptions, and scope conditions explicitly
• The argument works for your case but you can't yet say who else can use it

Build the argument (by mode of work)

Quantitative / demographic

1. Concept — define the key constructs precisely; distinguish from neighbors and from the measures.
2. Mechanism — the social process: who does what, why, under what structural conditions.
3. Observable implications — what we should see if the mechanism operates (and what we should not). These become the tests in sf-research-design.
4. Scope conditions — where the argument holds and where it does not. Portability ≠ universality.

Comparative-historical / ethnographic

• State the portable logic the case illuminates before the narrative detail.
• Build the argument through evidence and counterfactuals; engage the strongest rival interpretation.
• Show what the case lets the field see or theorize that it could not before.

Network / computational

• Tie the structural or behavioral pattern to a social mechanism, not just a model output.
• Distinguish predictions unique to your account from those shared with simpler explanations.

The "portability" test (SF-specific)

Ask: Could a researcher in another social-science subfield import this mechanism or concept to their own problem? If yes, you have a general-audience contribution. If it only works for your exact case, tighten it into a general logic or reframe (back to sf-topic-selection).

Anti-patterns

• "Hypothesizing after results are known" (HARKing) — state theory before tests
• Mechanisms named but never made observable
• Universal claims with no scope conditions
• A theory section so long it crowds out analysis under the reference-inclusive cap
• Burying the argument under the empirics — the contribution must be stated plainly and early

Operating pass for Social Forces

Treat this skill as an executable review pass, not a prose hint. First lock the social mechanism, data scope, identification or interpretation, and contribution to a wider literature; then judge whether the current manuscript answers the venue's real reader: social-science reviewers who want generalizable social-process evidence across sociology, demography, and policy-adjacent topics.

• Do the pass: Return a claim-evidence-risk ledger rather than a prose-only diagnosis; every recommendation must point to a manuscript location or missing artifact.
• Return a ledger: give claim / evidence / risk / manuscript location rows, so the next agent can edit rather than rediscover the issue.
• Sibling guard: compare against ASR/AJS for top sociology theory stakes, Demography for population process, JMF for family-specific claims; if a sibling owns the contribution, recommend re-routing before polishing format.
• Stop condition: do not give submission-ready advice until the pack's resources/official-source-map.md has been checked for volatile rules and the manuscript has one concrete fix for the largest venue-specific risk.

Output format

【Core claim】one sentence
【Mechanism】the social/causal story
【Observable implications】testable consequences → research-design
【Scope conditions】where it holds / fails
【Portability】who else (in or beyond sociology) can use this argument
【Concision】argument stated without crowding the word/reference budget? [Y/N]
【Next】sf-research-design

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/external_tools.md — analysis tooling across SF's methodological range
• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — SF scope and contribution expectations