Analysis Without Measurement

In plying their trade, social scientists often are confronted with significant phenomena that appear incapable of measurement. Past practice would suggest that the way to deal with these cases is to work harder at finding appropriate measures so that standard quantitative analysis can still be applied. Professor Katzner's approach, however is quite different. Rather than concentrating on the construction of measures, he raises the question of how such phenomena can be investigated and understood in the absence of numerical gauges to represent them.Table of Content1. Introduction; 2. Notes on measurement; Part I. Theoretical methods: 3. Basic concepts; 4. Algebraic structure; 5. Analysis of specific systems; 6. General Systems; 7. Some epistemological considerations; Part II. Applications to theoretical problems: 8. Political systems; 9. Planning; 10. Simultaneous change and modernization; 11. Profits, optimality, and the social division of labor in the firm; Part III. Empirical verification: 12. Statistical background; 13. Empirical relations among variables; 14. An empirical application: occupational preferences and the quality of life; 15. Getting on without measures.Rather than concentrating on the construction of measures this book raises the question of how phenomena can be investigated and understood in the absence of numerical gauges to represent them.