Holism versus reductionism in modern social science research

Since an early stage in most of the technical sciences, and during the last few decades in many of the social sciences, reductionistic research has become a mainstream type of empirical research. This research, to be characterised methodologically in this article, has proven to be very successful in building a body of abstract and generalisable theoretical knowledge, for reasons that are made clear in this article. However, does reductionism grasp reality in its full extent, the whole being more than the sum of its parts? In this article arguments and research strategies for holistic empirical research are presented, offering advantages and possibilities for modern social science research.