I agree with Alex, i was not suggesting that there is anything perfect about any methodological perspective, they each have issues and are useful. I will say that most analytical methods are empirical though. Granted some are not, some analytical methods just analyze abstractions. In any case, I think the closest work in popular sociology on critical mass, might be Malcolm Gladwell's Tipping Point On Dec 21, 2006, at 10:45 PM, Alex Halavais wrote: Jeremy Hunsinger School of Library and Information Science Pratt Institute () ascii ribbon campaign - against html mail /\ - against microsoft attachments http://www.aoir.org The Association of Internet Researchers http://www.stswiki.org/ stswiki http://cfp.learning-inquiry.info/ LI-the journal http://transdisciplinarystudies.tmttlt.com/ Transdisciplinary Studies:the book series