scholarly journals Introduction: The Case for Discrimination Research

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Rosita Fibbi ◽  
Arnfinn H. Midtbøen ◽  
Patrick Simon
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Racial Discrimination ◽  
Racial Inequalities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Domains ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Scientific Fields

AbstractIncreasing migration-related diversity in Europe has fostered dramatic changes since the 1950s, among them the rise of striking ethno-racial inequalities in employment, housing, health, and a range of other social domains. These ethno-racial disadvantages can be understood as evidence of widespread discrimination; however, scholarly debates reflect striking differences in the conceptualization and measurement of discrimination in the social sciences. Indeed, what discrimination is, as well as how and why it operates, are differently understood and studied by the various scholarships and scientific fields. It is the ambition of this book to summarize how we frame, study, theorize, and aim at combatting ethno-racial discrimination in Europe.

Politics, Economics, and Political Economy

1973 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 263-279
Author(s):  
Trevor Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Thomas Kuhn ◽  
Widespread Adoption ◽  
The Social ◽  
Small Measure ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Critical Literature

DISSATISFACTION WITH ESTABLISHED MODES OF SCHOLARSHIP IS A contemporary manifestation common to all the social sciences in varying degrees. In the terminology of Thomas Kuhn, which in its widespread adoption seems in no small measure to have contribted to the new waves of methodological consciousness, the prevailing ‘paradigms’, which were largely consolidated in the 1950s, are being explicitly and often vehemently challenged. A burgeoning critical literature is readily apparent throughout the social sciences and, for that matter, beyond.

The ‘psychological’ and the ‘spiritual’: an evolutional relationship within an ontological framework. A brief comment on Jung's ‘Self’

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 193-210
Author(s):  
Grigorios Chrysostom Tympas
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Religion And Spirituality ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Cultural Constructs ◽  
Multiple Factors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Important Position ◽  
Ontological Framework ◽  
Scientific Fields

Despite the prevalence of phenomenological perspectives in most modern scientific fields addressing religion and spirituality, including psychology of religion, ontological inquiries retain an important position in certain fields, such as modern sociology (e.g., Weber, Giddens' concept of ‘ontological security’). Ontological and phenomenological approaches, alongside certain principles that function as interpretative tools in the social sciences (e.g., reductionism, teleology, supervenience), can be synthesised to construct a pluralistic methodology for understanding anew the dynamics between the ‘psychological’ and the ‘spiritual’. This paper attempts to articulate an ‘evolutional’ approach to the spiritual as an ‘emergent’ property arising from multiple factors beyond the psychological and the metaphysical (such as social and cultural constructs). This holistic understanding of the spiritual will be then applied to Jung's notion of the ‘Self’ to understand further its spiritual and/or ontological potential.

Alfred Schutz's conception of relevance and its significances for the social sciences

2021 ◽  
pp. 17-36
Author(s):  
Hisashi Nasu
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Scientific Fields

The conception of relevance has come to be increasingly under discussion in various scientific fields under the recent social-cultural-historical conditions of the globalization, digitalization, and liquidation of society. In my opinion, many of these various discussions are, explicitly or implicitly, founded on Alfred Schutz's ideas about relevance. This essay aims to clarify his sociological conception of relevance founded on phenomenological investigations by inquiries into what he said about the concept and problem of relevance through a comparison between Schutz's ideas on how to deal with the «incomprehensiveness» of the «totality» of the world with M. Weber's and F. von Hayek's with reference to Schutz's ideas as to how human experience proceeds

Underdevelopment, Obstacles to the Perception of Change, and Leadership

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert O. Hirschman
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Vital Role ◽  
The Real ◽  
Cumulative Change ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Intellectual Leadership

This chapter challenges the defeatism of Hirschman's friends and colleagues during the 1950s–1960s, when numerous political and social upheavals were happening worldwide. In this chapter, Hirschman explains that many of the so-called “structural causes”—a term advanced by his Latin American colleagues in the social sciences which refers to entrenched obstacles that make all efforts to change self-defeating—are ideological constructs. The chapter discusses two obstacles to the perception of change: the persistence of traits which are related to the “little traditions,” as well as the bias in the perception of cumulative change. It argues that the real, “stealthy” change that was actually occurring is being obscured in the process and the vital role of political and intellectual leadership is thus ignored.

scholarly journals Farewell to (post)colonialism in Danish-Greenlandic relations? And then again, maybe not…

2018 ◽  
pp. 152-167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazimierz Musiał ◽  
Agata Lubowicka
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Pierre Bourdieu ◽  
Theoretical Work ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
The Core ◽  
Research Perspectives ◽  
The Social ◽  
Time Periods ◽  
The 1950S ◽  
Post Colonialism

The aim of the article is to investigate the allegedly new relationship between Greenland and Denmark in Danish political and literary discourses relating to Greenland, by approaching it from two different research perspectives – those of political and literary studies. The analysis draws on the theoretical work of Pierre Bourdieu and his concepts of habitus, capitals and dispositions that together create a hegemonic order. It also applies the concept of framing, as operationalised by A. Pluwak, B. Scheufele, W.A. Gamson, and A. Modigliani in the social sciences. The essay is structured according to the core framing tasks: diagnostic, prognostic and motivational, and their confluence with the temporal frames of the 1950s, the 1970s and the period beyond the 1990s. The analysis employs examples from both post-WW2 official documents related to Greenland and produced in or on behalf of Denmark, and from Danish literature about Greenland published in the same time periods.

scholarly journals Future Anticipation in Sociology

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-341
Author(s):  
Carlos Miguel Ferreira ◽  
Sandro Serpa
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
The Future ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Scientific Fields

The ability to make forecasts about events is a goal favored by the so-called exact sciences. In sociology and other social sciences, the forecast, although often sought after, is not likely to be realized unconditionally. This article seeks to problematize and discuss the connection between sociology and forecast. The object of study of sociology has particular features that distinguish it from other scientific fields, namely facts and social situations, which deal with trends; the systems of belief of social scientists and policymakers that can influence the attempt to anticipate the future; the dissemination of information and knowledge produced by sociology and other social sciences, which have the potential to change reality and, consequently, to call into question their capacity for the social forecast. These principles pose challenges to sociology’s heuristic potentials, making the reflection on these challenges indispensable in the scientific approach to social processes.

Riding alone on the elevator

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Anna M. Frank ◽  
Rebecca Froese ◽  
Barbara C. Hof ◽  
Maike I. E. Scheffold ◽  
Felix Schreyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Real World ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
The Social ◽  
Introductory Class ◽  
Scientific Fields ◽  
Real World Problems

Abstract The ability to conduct interdisciplinary research is crucial to address complex real-world problems that require the collaboration of different scientific fields, with global warming being a case in point. To produce integrated climate-related knowledge, climate researchers should be trained early on to work across boundaries and gain an understanding of diverse disciplinary perspectives. This article argues for social breaching as a methodology to introduce students with a natural science background to the social sciences in the context of integrated climate sciences. The breach of a social norm presented here was to ask people whether the experimenter could ride on an elevator alone. We conclude that the approach is effective in letting students with a natural science background explore and experience the power of social reality, and is especially suitable for a small-sized introductory class.

Roger Schofield as Historian and Demographer: an Appreciation

2020 ◽  
pp. 6-30
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Analytical Techniques ◽  
Academic Life ◽  
Material Resources ◽  
Academic Standing ◽  
The Social ◽  
The 1950S

This paper is an appreciation of Roger Schofield's academic life and work. It argues that his considerable distinctions in the social sciences should not be allowed to detract from his essential qualities as a historian which constitute the fundamental key to his overall academic standing and his particular intellectual insights. The paper first considers the context within which those skills became embedded when an undergraduate and postgraduate historian at Clare College in the 1950s and early 1960s. It then reviews the ways in which they shone through recurrently in his work as historical demographer, economic and social historian as well as purveyor of quantitative analytical techniques and finally, of particular significance, his role as local historian and empathetic supporter and key provider of encouragement and material resources to the historical amateur.

Riding alone on the elevator

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna M. Frank ◽  
Rebecca Froese ◽  
Barbara C. Hof ◽  
Maike I. E. Scheffold ◽  
Felix Schreyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Real World ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
The Social ◽  
Introductory Class ◽  
Scientific Fields ◽  
Real World Problems

The ability to conduct interdisciplinary research is crucial to address complex real-world problems that require the collaboration of different scientific fields, with global warming being a case in point. To produce integrated climate-related knowledge, climate researchers should be trained early on to work across boundaries and gain an understanding of diverse disciplinary perspectives. This article argues for social breaching as a methodology to introduce students with a natural science background to the social sciences in the context of integrated climate sciences. The breach of a social norm presented here was to ask people whether the experimenter could ride on an elevator alone. We conclude that the approach is effective in letting students with a natural science background explore and experience the power of social reality, and is especially suitable for a small-sized introductory class.

scholarly journals The social topology of science in national and transnational contexts: the case of social sciences

2021 ◽  
pp. 55-63
Author(s):  
Ilona G. Nedelevskaya
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Social Space ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Scientific Activity ◽  
Scientific Field ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Topology ◽  
Scientific Fields

The article explores the possibilities of application P. Bourdieu’s social topology in the studying of inequality in science in national and transnational contexts. It is argued that in the conditions of globalising science, discussions about its egalitarianism, which began approximately in the middle of the last century, are moving beyond national borders. For the purposes of studying global inequality in science, scholars often apply the theoretical frameworks of world-systems analysis, neo-institutionalism, and the theory of global governance. However, these theories often lead to reductionism which ignores the symbolic dimension of scientific activity. The article suggests reassessing the heuristic potentiality of P. Bourdieu’s social topology, which mitigates the mentioned drawback of other theories. The article aims to demonstrate the relevance of this theoretical framework for the study of inequality in different scales of scientific activity due to the fact that the French sociologist focused mainly on national academic systems. The article defines the general provisions of P. Bourdieu’s topological concept of the field and the units of the social order of the scientific field. It also demonstrates the role of various forms of capital in determining the structure of social space. Based on the case of social sciences, the article explores the formation of scientific fields, their interaction with other fields, and their structure in different scales. The structure of the scientific field on the national scale can be defined as a dichotomy of dominant – dominated or centre – periphery. On the transnational scale, this dichotomy is also relevant but it is represented by national fields. Among them, the dominant position is occupied by the United States and Great Britain, which have the largest amount of symbolic power. The structure of the transnational scientific space, however, is more complex and includes overlapping fields of national, regional and more global dimensions. The article argued that applying the theoretical framework of the field to the study of the transnational scientific field will remain tied to the definition and explanation of the peculiarities and the interaction of national scientific fields as long as national states keep their institutional boundaries in scientific activity.

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