As a middle range theory, it can be federated with other theories to explain empirical phenomena.

Middle range theory can refer to theories in:

The term was adapted from middle range theory in sociology by Lewis Binford.

In archaeology, middle range theory refers to theories linking human behavior and natural processes to physical remains in the archaeological record.

Middle range theories are derived from ethnoarchaeology and experimental research in combination with the study of taphonomic processes.

The approach gained notoriety during the emphasis on middle range theory that was a feature of the processual movement of the 1960s.

Middle range theory (sociology)

A Middle Range Theory could describe any cultural system outside of its specific cultural context, for example, the archaeology of agriculture.

Binford and many of his contemporaries viewed the construction of middle range theories as a fundamental first step in understanding how people in the past behaved.

Middle Range theory is an approach to sociological theorizing aimed at integrating theory and empirical research, developed by Robert K. Merton.

Examples of middle range theories are theories of reference groups, social mobility, normalization processes, role conflict and the formation of social norms.

Normalization Process Theory is a true middle range theory that is located within the 'turn to materiality' in STS.

Merton tended to emphasize middle range theory rather than a grand theory, meaning that he was able to deal specifically with some of the limitations in Parsons' theory.

Middle range theory starts with an empirical phenomenon (as opposed to a broad abstract entity like the social system) and abstracts from it to create general statements that can be verified by data.

Binford stated the problem in New Perspectives in Archaeology, identifying the Low Range Theory, the Middle range theory, and the Upper Range Theory.

Middle range theories are normally constructed through the integration of empirical research with theory building techniques from which can be derived generic propositions about the social world and which can be empirically tested.

Thus current social vulnerability research is a middle range theory and represents an attempt to understand the social conditions that transform a natural hazard (e.g. flood, earthquake, mass movements etc.) into a social disaster.

Constrained by Merton's middle range theory [note: to be discussed here], the specification of cultural elements and social structures makes possible the investigation of specific cultural and social systems and their interaction.

At the time Binford thought the Middle Range Theory may be as far as archaeologists could ever go, but in the mid-1970s some believed that Systems Theory offered the definitive Upper Range Theory.

With the introduction of the middle range theory program, he advocated that sociologists should concentrate on measurable aspects of social reality that can be studied as separate social phenomena, rather than attempting to explain the entire social world.

I think that without going into a lengthy treatise, I would have to argue that middle range theory springing out of empirical data is in general the best approach but you will see all the qualifications and nuances involved in such a view.

Second, Normalization process theory is a middle range theory used mainly in medical sociology and science and technology studies to provide a framework for understanding the social processes by which new ways of thinking, working and organizing become routinely incorporated in everyday work.

Middle range theory has also been applied to the archaeological realm by Lewis R. Binford, and to financial theory by Harvard Business School Professor Robert C. Merton, Robert K. Merton's son.

He saw both the middle-range theory approach and middle-range theories themselves as temporary: when they matured, as natural sciences already had, the body of middle range theories would become a system of universal laws; but, until that time, social sciences should avoid trying to create a universal theory.

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.