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ajs-theory-building

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Use when building the theoretical argument of an American Journal of Sociology (AJS) manuscript into a portable, discipline-level contribution. AJS prizes theoretical ambition above a bare finding — explicit concepts, mechanisms, and scope conditions, in the idiom of the work (quantitative, comparative-historical, ethnographic, or formal). Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.

When to use

• building theoretical argument for AJS manuscript
• creating portable discipline-level contribution
• defining explicit concepts and mechanisms
• specifying scope conditions
• surfacing implicit theory in comparative-historical work
• surfacing implicit theory in ethnographic work
• translating formal results into comparative statics
• engaging with sociological classics

When not to use

• running analyses
• selecting topics
• designing research

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