Astonishingly there exists no single English language book dedicated to the continental tradition in the philosophy of social science. Juxtapose this surprising position with the abundance of continental works on all other aspects of European thought from the vast array of tracts on political philosophy, aesthetics and the history of European ideas to the plethora of studies of individual thinkers and schools of thought. Contrast, too, this lack of a treatment of continental philosophy of social science with the abundance of expositions of the same subject matter in the Anglo-American tradition.

In fact, the entire mainstream corpus of philosophy of social science is dominated by Anglo-American literature. Consequently these transatlantic schools set the agenda for pretty much all philosophy of social science with their own particular approach to the subject matter – a distinct canon of thinkers, set of questions and debates. The continental domain is simply marginalized by this rubric: either through sheer exclusion or, indeed, by a reductive mode of inclusion.

On the one hand, in so far as continental issues veer from the Anglo-American agenda, the continental tradition is simply ostracised. On the other hand, in so far as continental questions address this ‘mainstream’ rubric the tradition is included. However this means that in so far as the continental philosophy of social science exists at all, it is merely treated as a strand of influence in the supposedly much larger world of Anglo-American approaches.