Discipline-Building in the Social Sciences: Collective Memory, Biography and Autobiography

Author(s):  
Charles Crothers
2019 ◽  
pp. 175069801987608
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Blustein

It is commonplace to attribute memories to groups of individuals both large and small. Attributions of memories to groups are also found in social science research. This article proposes using philosophical accounts from the literature on social ontology to help clarify and deepen our understanding of how these terms are being employed in the social sciences. Two contrasting accounts of collective remembering are presented: the joint commitment account derived from the seminal work of Margaret Gilbert, and the participatory intentions account based on Christopher Kutz’s analysis of collective action. The implications of these accounts for clarifying notions of collective memory and remembering in the social sciences are explored through two case studies—one involving a social media site that promotes sharing of memories among users and the other concerning organizational remembering.


2018 ◽  
pp. 43-56
Author(s):  
Artur Lipiński

The social sciences have experienced an unprecedented interest in the issue of collective memory dating back at least to the 1990s. There has been a veritable avalanche of studies into this topic, editorial series and periodicals have appeared devoted exclusively to it. Simulta- neously, an analysis of the literature on this topic shows that collective memory is not a partic- ularly frequent subject of political science research. It is therefore routine in many works of political scientists to acknowledge the limited number of studies on memory. All that does not mean that the trend has not begun slowly to change. The number of texts on the political as- pects of memory is systematically growing, there are editorial series and monographic issues of scientific periodicals concerning the issue of memory or the political instrumentalization of history. Political scientists are also co-authors of collective works and periodicals of an inter- disciplinary character. The objective of this paper is to analyze a single, but highly influential, issue related to political science research into memory, namely the topic of identity perceived from the perspective of collective memory. The purpose is not so much the exhaustive presen- tation of all the surveys into memory and collective identity in the field of political science but rather establishing the set of main concepts, themes and issues explored by political science literature written in English.


Methodology ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Knut Petzold ◽  
Tobias Wolbring

Abstract. Factorial survey experiments are increasingly used in the social sciences to investigate behavioral intentions. The measurement of self-reported behavioral intentions with factorial survey experiments frequently assumes that the determinants of intended behavior affect actual behavior in a similar way. We critically investigate this fundamental assumption using the misdirected email technique. Student participants of a survey were randomly assigned to a field experiment or a survey experiment. The email informs the recipient about the reception of a scholarship with varying stakes (full-time vs. book) and recipient’s names (German vs. Arabic). In the survey experiment, respondents saw an image of the same email. This validation design ensured a high level of correspondence between units, settings, and treatments across both studies. Results reveal that while the frequencies of self-reported intentions and actual behavior deviate, treatments show similar relative effects. Hence, although further research on this topic is needed, this study suggests that determinants of behavior might be inferred from behavioral intentions measured with survey experiments.


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