The core idea of this book is "abduction," a term coined by Charles S. Peirce (which gives away the pragmatist philosophical roots of the book). It s differentiated from induction (collecting new data in and using it to strengthen or problematize well-established theories ) and deduction (an initial hypothesis about specific observations already based on existing theory). Neither induction nor deduction, Peirce noted, were particularly creativeneither leads to new theories. Tavory and Timmermans maintain that theory-generation requires us to move away from our preconceived notions and to create new narratives about the phenomenon we re trying to explain. Abduction occurs when we encounter observations that don t neatly fit existing theory and we find ourselves speculating what the data plausibly could be a case of. Abduction thus refers to a creative inferential process aimed at producing new hypotheses and theories based on surprising research evidence. Abduction forms a new hypothesis for which we need to gather more data points to strengthen our hunch. Tavory and Timmermans offer much practical advice, and vivid examples from their own and others research, but their treatment is not in all respects a straightforward how to methods book. What they concentrate on is providing a new way of thinking about data analysis grounded in the pragmatist tradition."

Iddo Tavory is assistant professor of sociology at New York University. Stefan Timmermans is professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of Postmortem: How Medical Examiners Explain Suspicious Death and coauthor of Saving Babies? The Consequences of Newborn Genetic Screening, both published by the University of Chicago Press.