Translating social science

Target ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 348-364 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua M. Price
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Translation Studies ◽  
Scientific Texts ◽  
Conceptual Clarification ◽  
Insufficient Attention ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Immanuel Wallerstein ◽  
Original Concept

Dedicated to the memory of Daniel Simeoni Insufficient attention has been paid in Translation Studies to the challenges particular to translating social scientific texts. Of the few who have taken up the topic, Immanuel Wallerstein has argued that one of the distinguishing characteristics of social scientific texts is that they traffic in concepts. Wallerstein wants the translation of social science to further the possibility of a universal conversation in the social sciences. I argue that a universal conversation in the social sciences is neither possible nor desirable. Instead, this article proposes that translating social science can contribute to conceptual clarification and elaboration. In this way, the translation may complement and further the flowering of the ‘original’ concept. The essay concludes with an extended example—how ‘bewilderment’ might be translated into Spanish.

Feminism and social science

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison Wylie
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Theoretical Basis ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Feminist Activism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Contextual Values ◽  
Second Wave

Feminists have two sorts of interest in the social sciences. With the advent of the second-wave women’s movement, they developed wide-ranging critiques of gender bias in the conceptual framework and methodology, as well as in the goals, institutions and practice of virtually all the social sciences; they argue that the social sciences both reflect and contribute to the sexism of the larger societies in which they are embedded. Alongside these critiques feminist practitioners have established constructive programmes of research that are intended to rectify the inadequacies of existing traditions of research and to address questions of concern to women. In this they are committed both to improving the disciplines in which they participate and to establishing a sound empirical and theoretical basis for feminist activism. This engagement of feminists with social science, as commentators and practitioners, raises a number of philosophical issues that have been addressed by feminist social scientists and philosophers. These include questions about ideals of objectivity and the role of contextual values in social scientific inquiry, the goals of feminist research, the forms of practice appropriate to these goals, and the responsibilities of feminist researchers to the subjects of inquiry and to those who may otherwise be affected by its conduct or results.

Social science as apologia

2021 ◽  
pp. 136843102199096
Author(s):  
Federico Brandmayr
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Beliefs And Practices ◽  
Political Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Scientific

The social sciences are predominantly seen by their practitioners as critical endeavours, which should inform criticism of harmful institutions, beliefs and practices. Accordingly, political attacks on the social sciences are often interpreted as revealing an unwillingness to accept criticism and an acquiescence with the status quo. But this dominant view of the political implications of social scientific knowledge misses the fact that people can also be outraged by what they see as its apologetic potential, namely that it provides excuses or justifications for people doing bad things, preventing them from being rightfully blamed and punished. This introduction to the special issue sketches the long history of debates about the exculpatory and justificatory consequences of social science and lays the foundations for a theory of social scientific apologia by examining three main aspects: what social and cognitive processes motivate this type of accusation, how social theorists respond to it and whether different contexts of circulation of ideas affect how these controversies unfold.

scholarly journals Abrir las ciencias sociales

1996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Immanuel Wallerstein ◽  
Fernando Cubides (Traductor)
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Social Science Research Council ◽  
The Social ◽  
Immanuel Wallerstein ◽  
Science Research Council ◽  
Fernand Braudel

Las páginas siguientes constituyen el registro de las palabras pronunciadas por Immanuel Wallerstein el 24 de octubre de 1995 en la Social Science Research Council de Nueva York. Su objetivo era la presentación del volumen Open the Social Sciences, un informe sobre la reestructuración de las ciencias sociales auspiciado por la Comisión Gulbenkian. Wallerstein es profesor de la Universidad del Estado de Nueva York en Binghamton y tiene a su cargo la dirección del Centro Fernand Braudel dedicado al estudio de la economía, las civilizaciones y los sistemas históricos. La editorial siglo XXI de México ha difundido en español los dos primeros volúmenes de su extensa obra El moderno sistema mundial, que acaba de ser escogido por la revista Contemporary Sociology como uno de los diez libros de ciencias sociales más influyentes en los últimos 25 años. El libro desarrolla la teoría de la economíamundo, un influyente y ambicioso marco de referencia de la sociología histórica norteamericana que estudia el impacto del capitalismo en la civilización moderna, El texto de esta presentación apareció originalmente en Items, el boletín del Social Scíence Research Council (vol, 50:1, marzo de 1996).G.C.

Instrumentalizing and Naturalizing Social Ontology: Replies to Lohse and Little

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-39
Author(s):  
Richard Lauer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Social World ◽  
Scientific Methodology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Science Methodology ◽  
Social Science Methodology ◽  
Made In

This article addresses Simon Lohse’s and Daniel Little’s responses to my article “Is Social Ontology Prior to Social Scientific Methodology?.” In that article, I present a pragmatic and deflationary view of the priority of social ontology to social science methodology where social ontology is valued for its ability to promote empirical success and not because it yields knowledge of what furnishes the social world. First, in response to Lohse, I argue that my view is compatible with a role for ontological theorizing in the social sciences. However, the view that results instrumentalizes social ontology. Second, in my response to Little, I argue that the same considerations I made in my article apply to naturalistic attempts to motivate a non-deflationary view, repeating some of the central issues of that article.

On Political Theory, the Humanities, and the Social Sciences

2016 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 1083-1089 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Foa Dienstag
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Political Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Science Departments

Sometimes political theorists like to imagine that they are lonely humanists misplaced in social science departments. In fact, political theory was created as part of a political science composed of both humanistic and social-scientific elements. Rather than trying to locate political theory somewhere between the humanities and the social sciences, we should instead dismantle the boundary between the two and create a unified discipline of questioning that embraces both kinds of inquiry.

Social sciences in the field of power – the case of Danish social science

2013 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 425-449 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristoffer Kropp
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Multiple Correspondence Analysis ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Research Subjects ◽  
The Social ◽  
Epistemological Position ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Societal Interests ◽  
Science Disciplines

The social science disciplines are strongly differentiated both on an epistemological level and in problem choice. It can be argued that they are characterized by a number of different epistemological ways of position-taking or ways of legitimizing social scientific knowledge production. Furthermore, different scientific problems and social institutions are allocated as research objects to different social science disciplines. This article looks into how these different epistemological styles and choice of scientific problems not only are internal principles of differentiation but also constitute important relations to other powerful social interests and institutions in the field of power. I argue that we can understand the social sciences as a field of force and struggle, where different disciplines compete in producing legitimate representations of the social that also represent specific societal interests. Using the language of Bourdieu, I construct a space of social scientific epistemological position-taking using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA). Into this space I project a number of supplementary variables representing social science disciplines, position-taking towards non-academic institutions, interests and research subjects, and thus show how different epistemological position-taking is connected to specific societal interests, problems and institutions. The article draws on data from a survey conducted among Danish social scientists in autumn 2009.

Can Law Learn from Social Science?

2001 ◽  
Vol 35 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 205-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Nelken
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Legal Rules ◽  
Political Critique ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Styles Of Reasoning

In this paper I shall be discussing a fundamental problem in the relationship between law and the social sciences. Many social scientists have pointed out that the “pull of the policy audience” in legislative and administrative exercises and the confines of practical decision-making in legal settings can compromise the proper development of academic social science and blunt the edge of political critique. The danger is real enough. But they have given insufficient attention to the opposite concern which will be my topic in this article. Here the charge is that the introduction of social scientific styles of reasoning can have ill effects for legal practice by threatening the integrity of legal processes and the values they embody. How can social scientists be sure that they have properly understood the nature of law or the meaning and point of the legal rules, procedures, and institutions which they attempt to analyze and seek to improve? What warrant can they have that social scientific interpretation, at any level, does not end up creating law in its own image? If this is a genuine risk, what implications follow for the way law should learn from social science? I shall argue that there are no easy answers to these questions even, or especially, where law apparently welcomes contributions from social science.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Lise Butler
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Activism ◽  
British Society ◽  
British Politics ◽  
Progressive Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Social Scientific

The introduction outlines Michael Young’s biography and numerous contributions to British politics, social science, and social activism. It explains how historians have frequently used the concept of an ‘ethical socialist’ tradition to describe aspects of British progressive politics concerned with fellowship, community, and quality of life, and argues that in the period after the Second World War this ethical tradition was expressed through the social sciences. While Young’s ideas have received attention from political historians and policy makers, the introduction argues that they have not been properly understood in the context of mid-twentieth-century social science. Discussing a recent movement amongst historians of modern Britain to critically re-examine social scientific understandings of twentieth-century British society, I argue that scholars should treat the social sciences as an important influence on the history of the British left.

Reading the Social Sciences Theologically (Part 2): Engaging and Appropriating Models of Human Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 476-494
Author(s):  
John David Trentham
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Science Models ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Inverse Consistency

Part 2 of 2. This series of articles seeks to present a viable hermeneutical framework according to which Christian scholars and educators may read social scientific literature with theological clarity. Part 1 established how Christians may approach and qualify social science models of human development, and introduced the “principle of inverse consistency.” Part 2 develops and applies that principle by establishing the manner in which Christians may engage and appropriate social science models of human development. To that end, this article concludes by proffering a four-step hermeneutical protocol.

Reading the Social Sciences Theologically (Part 1): Approaching and Qualifying Models of Human Development

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 458-475
Author(s):  
John David Trentham
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Human Development ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Developmental Models ◽  
Science Models ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Inverse Consistency

Part 1 of 2. This series of articles seeks to present a viable hermeneutical framework according to which Christian scholars and educators may read social scientific literature with theological clarity. Part 1 establishes the manner in which Christians may profitably approach and qualify social science models of human development. The “principle of inverse consistency,” introduced at the conclusion of this article, is put forth as a conceptual tool for interpreting developmental models with confessional and intellectual virtue.

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