<i>Scales of observation</i>A micro‐sociological epistemology of social science practice∗

Abstract

Often what is presented as conflict between schools of thought is more often based on a difference of scale of observation. Visual sociology is viewed as a way to understand the "scale issue" because the visual sociologist knows it is impossible to simultaneously photograph a macro and a micro phenomenon. We thus offer a critique of a prevalent fantasy in social science; that of catching at once all data coming from all scales.