General Conclusion: The End is the Beginning: Moving Forward While Looking Backward

In true recursive fashion, we return to the beginning in order to review the discussions regarding recursivity. As Long et al mention in their chapter, given how central recursion and recursivity are to the human and social sciences, it is odd how infrequent these notions are explicitly used in their disciplines. Importantly, I believe, these chapters have successfully brought notions of recursivity and recursion into some unchartered areas of the social and human sciences. However, we have to acknowledge Rudolph’s survey of recursion and recursivity where he demonstrates that when used in the social and human sciences, these ideas have multiple meanings, are confused, and are rarely clarified. Indeed, often the meaning of recursion in articles is left implicit without further clarification or development. One question that is mainly up to the reader is whether or not this volume presents a more systematic exploration of recursion and recursivity. While there is no single definition of recursion and recursivity universally adopted by all authors, I believe each has carefully articulated how they view and use recursivity and have contributed to both theoretical elaborations of recusrivity, and many have explored these notions in particular empirical contexts.