Locating and extending livelihoods research

Much poverty and development research is not explicit about its methodology or
philosophical foundations. Based on the extended case method of Burawoy and the
epistemological standpoint of critical realism, this paper discusses a methodological
approach for reflexive inductive livelihoods research that overcomes the unproductive social
science dualism of positivism and social constructivism. The approach is linked to a
conceptual framework and a menu of research methods that can be sequenced and iterated
in light of research questions.