Along with space, time is a central category of sociology. The core question is therefore: What research methods does sociology need in order to adequately grasp patterns of development (i.e. regularities of social action and their change) empirically? The work has been awarded the Bavarian Culture Prize, which was initiated by the electricity supplier E. ON Bayern AG, and the dissertation prize of the DGS. "Overall, Baur's book is a stimulating, readable approach to bringing temporality as a central category into the focus of sociological research." Cologne Journal of Sociology and Social Psychology, 03 / 2006 "The book represents a thorough and comprehensive review of the state of research in this field. [...] Anyone who wants to deal with the development pattern analysis would do well to start at this high level." ZA Information (Central Archive for Empirical Social Research at the University of Cologne), 58 / 2006