Abstract
In 1949 Robert Merton published the first edition of Social Theory and Social Structure (STSS). This volume crystallized a theory construction imperative for the social sciences: a strategy of building theories of the middle range (Merton, 1949, pp. 5–11). Although Merton (1967, 1968, pp. 56–58) would later trace the call for middle range theories (MRTs) to such eminent philosophers as Plato, Francis Bacon, John Stuart Mill, and Karl Mannheim, contemporary concern about the middle range imperative is due almost entirely to Merton’s discussion in the three editions of STSS (1949, 1957, and 1968).1
I am not one of those who hold that there is a scientific method as such. The scientific method, as far as it a method, is nothing more than doing one’s damnedest with one’s mind, no holds hatred.-P. W, Bridgman (1950, p. 351)
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Bluedorn, A.C., Evered, R. (1980). Middle Range Theory and the Strategies of Theory Construction. In: Pinder, C.C., Moore, L.F. (eds) Middle Range Theory and the Study of Organizations. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8733-3_2
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