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sf-theory-building

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Use when building the theoretical argument of a Social Forces (SF) manuscript into a portable, general-audience contribution — whether the work is quantitative, demographic, comparative-historical, ethnographic, network, or computational. SF prizes a theoretically grounded result over a bare finding. Structures the argument; it does not run analyses.

Social-Forces-Skills/skills/sf-theory-building/SKILL.md

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Nov 9, 2026

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# Theory & Argument Building (sf-theory-building)

At Social Forces a result is not a contribution until it is attached to an **argument a general
social-science reader can carry elsewhere.** SF's reputation rests on rigor *and* on findings that mean
something theoretically. This skill turns results into theory: explicit mechanisms, scope conditions,
and observable implications, in the idiom appropriate to your kind of work — stated economically,
because the **reference-inclusive 10,000-word cap** leaves no room to ramble.

## When to trigger

- The empirics are strong but the "so what / why" is thin
- A reviewer said the paper is "atheoretical," "descriptive," or "just a finding"
- You need to state mechanisms, assumptions, and scope conditions explicitly
- The argument works for your case but you can't yet say who else can use it
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