Middle Range Theory

Middle range theory can refer to theories in:

  • Middle-range theory (archaeology) - describes how people use objects and structures and the human behaviors associated with this use; it is based on the more known
  • Middle range theory (sociology) - as discussed by Robert K. Merton is a theory with limited scope, that explains a specific set of phenomena, as opposed to a grand theory like that proposed by Talcott Parsons that seeks to explain phenomena at a societal level.

Famous quotes containing the words middle, range and/or theory:

    “After sixty, the self-questioning of middle age is obsolete.”
    —Mason Cooley (b. 1927)

    “[F]or as Socrates says that a wise man is a citizen of the world, so I thought that a wise woman was equally at liberty to range through every station or degree of men, to fix her choice wherever she pleased.”
    —Sarah Fielding (1710–1768)

    “Thus the theory of description matters most.
    It is the theory of the word for those
    For whom the word is the making of the world,
    The buzzing world and lisping firmament.”
    —Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)