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sf-theory-building

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Use when building the theoretical argument of a Social Forces (SF) manuscript into a portable, general-audience contribution — whether the work is quantitative, demographic, comparative-historical, ethnographic, network, or computational. SF prizes a theoretically grounded result over a bare finding. Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.

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Source SKILL.md: https://github.com/brycewang-stanford/Awesome-Journal-Skills/blob/HEAD/Social-Forces-Skills/skills/sf-theory-building/SKILL.md

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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