The observation that concepts used by social scientists are often problematic is not new; they have been described as Ballung concepts, cluster concepts, essentially contested, and reflexive; however, the need to work with these concepts remains. This article addresses the problem of variable choice in the social sciences by exploring and extending Woodward’s recommendations. This article demonstrates why Woodward’s criteria are difficult to apply in the social sciences and proposes an alternative, but complementary, framework for assessing variables.

中文翻译：

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游牧概念，变量选择与社会科学

社会科学家所使用的概念经常有问题的观点并不新鲜；它们被描述为Ballung概念，聚类概念，本质上是有争议的和反身的；但是，仍然需要使用这些概念。本文通过探索和扩展伍德沃德的建议来解决社会科学中的变量选择问题。本文说明了为什么伍德沃德的标准很难在社会科学中应用，并提出了一种替代性但互补的评估变量的框架。