2. Forms of Knowledge

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Halperin ◽  
Oliver Heath
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Social World ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
Ethnic Conflicts ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Political Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

This chapter focuses on fundamental assumptions that researchers make about how we can know and develop knowledge about the social world, such as assumptions about the nature of human behaviour and the methods appropriate to studying and explaining that behaviour. The main objective is how to carry out a systematic and rigorous investigation of social phenomena. The chapter considers three different answers to the question of how to approach the study of social phenomena: those offered by positivism, scientific realism, and interpretivism. It also explores the differences among these answers and their implications for conducting political research. Finally, it discusses the use of a positivist (rational choice) and interpretivist (constructivist) approach to the analysis of ethnic conflicts in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

2. Forms of Knowledge: Laws, Explanation, and Interpretation in the Study of the Social World

2020 ◽  
pp. 27-63
Author(s):  
Sandra Halperin ◽  
Oliver Heath
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Social World ◽  
Human Behaviour ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
Ethnic Conflicts ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Political Research ◽  
The Social ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

This chapter focuses on fundamental assumptions that researchers make about how we can know and develop knowledge about the social world, such as assumptions about the nature of human behaviour and the methods appropriate to studying and explaining that behaviour. The main objective is how to carry out a systematic and rigorous investigation of social phenomena. The chapter considers three different answers to the question of how to approach the study of social phenomena: those offered by positivism, scientific realism, and interpretivism. It also explores the differences among these answers and their implications for conducting political research. Finally, it discusses the use of a positivist (rational choice) and interpretivist (constructivist) approach to the analysis of ethnic conflicts in Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Ontology

2021 ◽  
pp. 194-199
Author(s):  
Eric Fabri
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Scientific Realism ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Social Ontology ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Modes Of Existence ◽  
Objective Existence

This chapter addresses ontology, which is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of being. As a branch of metaphysics, ontology is mainly concerned with the modes of existence of different entities (tangible and intangible). Every subdiscipline in the social sciences relies on an ontology that defines which elements really matter when it comes to explaining the phenomenon they set out to elucidate. A specific branch of ontology is devoted to the modes of existence of social phenomena: social ontology. Two main positions emerge: realism and constructivism. Scientific realism assumes that social phenomena have an objective existence, independent of the subject. By contrast, constructivism claims that social phenomena have no objective existence and are a construction of the human mind. Its fundamental axiom is that, even if reality exists outside the subject’s perception, the subject cannot reach it without perceiving it. This implies the mediation of imaginary structures, which are provided by social groups. It is important to note, however, that many other positions exist apart from realism and constructivism.

7. Social Constructivism

2021 ◽  
pp. 191-219
Author(s):  
Georg Sørensen ◽  
Jørgen Møller ◽  
Robert Jackson
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
International Society ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Social World ◽  
Constructivist Theory ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
European Cooperation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Important Approach ◽  
Social Constructivist Theory

This chapter examines the social constructivist theory of IR. It first discusses the rise of social constructivism and why it has established itself as an important approach in IR. It then considers constructivism as social theory, and more specifically as both a meta-theory about the nature of the social world and as a set of substantial theories of IR. Several examples of constructivist IR theory are presented, followed by reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of the constructivist approach. The chapter proceeds by exploring constructivist theories of international relations, focusing on cultures of anarchy, norms of International Society, the power of international organizations, a constructivist approach to European cooperation, and domestic formation of identity and norms. The chapter concludes with an analysis of some of the major criticisms of constructivism and by emphasizing internal debates within constructivism.

Further Reflections in the Social World

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 ◽  
pp. 257-284
Author(s):  
Margaret Gilbert ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social World ◽  
Joint Commitment ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
Collective Beliefs ◽  
The Individual

This discussion responds to a collection of papers that relate in one way or another to the author’s work in the philosophy of social phenomena. It focuses on those passages that deal most directly with that work. After making some general points that respond to remarks in several of the papers, it turns to the individual papers. The subjects discussed include coordination, conversation, collective beliefs and emotions, joint commitment, obligations and rights, patriotism, promises, the pronoun “we”, and what it is to tell someone something.

scholarly journals Conceptualization of serious play in modern sociocultural reality

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (6) ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
Tatiana V. Fanenshtil ◽  
◽  
Irina V. Sadykova ◽  
Sofya Y. Sukhanova ◽  
◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Social World ◽  
Global Scale ◽  
Social Philosophy ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Theory Of Practice ◽  
The Social

In the conditions of transformation of sociocultural reality, its processes, levels, spheres, and new integrative social phenomena emerge, the meaning and role of which in the modern world have yet to be clarified. One of such phenomena is serious play. Traditionally, the playful and the serious, at the intersection of which serious play arises, are positioned as independent and mutually exclusive elements of the social world. We examine what changes in the social reality, in the relations of the playful and the serious, in the position of man in modern social processes make serious play possible and how serious play redetermines the conditions of its occurrence. For this, we used methods of philosophical analysis and hermeneutics: interpretation, conceptualization, comparative analysis. As a theoretical and methodological basis, we used the categorical apparatus of social philosophy, theory of practice, pragmatism, and social epistemology. As a result, we found that serious play is thought of as a social process in the range from an individual to global scale. In serious play, the subject, through the generation of meanings, performs both the production and reproduction of culture in predetermined ontoaxiological bases, and constructs these bases, while realizing the degree of his freedom, responsibility and immersion in the world he creates through his practices. The significance of the results of our research lies in the fact that the concept of serious play at the intersection of serious and game relations reveals the potential of serious play as an element of sociocultural reality. Serious play reflects the level of complexity of modern reality and ensures that a person adapts to the ever-increasing dynamics of this complexity. The trend of gamification registers this in the space of higher education, which causes a change in the role of the university in the modern social world. Serious play redefines the position of a person in the modern, dynamic and individualized social world. For the first time, serious play is conceptualized at the intersection of the playful and the serious as independent and mutually exclusive elements of sociocultural reality and is analyzed in the trend of the gamification of higher education.

scholarly journals John Maynard Keynes Between Old and New Institutionalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 14-39
Author(s):  
Carolina Miranda Cavalcante ◽  
Emmanoel De Oliveira Boff
Keyword(s):  
Rational Choice ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Human Action ◽  
Social World ◽  
Individual Action ◽  
John Maynard Keynes ◽  
Thorstein Veblen ◽  
Ontological Commitments ◽  
The Social ◽  
Douglass North

The article considers the possible compatibility (in epistemological and ontological terms) of the conceptions of convention and institutions in the thought of John Maynard Keynes, Thorstein Veblen and Douglass North. We argue, first, that while Veblen suggests an approach to institutions based on instincts, North sustains an approach to institutions based on rational choice, which implies distinct conceptions about institutions and the social world. We then present Keynes's ontological commitments and the epistemological implications of his ontology. We conclude that there is a background ontological compatibility between Keynes and the late North in that both accept that the socioeconomic world is fundamentally uncertain and non-ergodic; also that Keynes is epistemologically closer to North than Veblen in studying the economy as a market system embedded in social institutions; and finally that Keynes's treatment of individual action is closer to Veblen’s than North’s, in that both Keynes and Veblen see human action as based on instincts and not only on rationality.

8. Social Constructivism

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Georg Sørensen
Keyword(s):  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Social World ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
European Cooperation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Important Approach ◽  
Social Constructivist Theory

This chapter examines the social constructivist theory of International Political Economy (IPE). It first discusses the rise of social constructivism and why it has established itself as an important approach in IR. It then considers constructivism as social theory, and more specifically as both a meta-theory about the nature of the social world and a substantial theory of IR. Several examples of constructivist IR theory are presented, followed by reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of the constructivist approach. The chapter proceeds by exploring constructivist theories of international relations, focusing on cultures of anarchy, norms of International Society, the power of international organizations, a constructivist approach to European cooperation, and domestic formation of identity and norms. The chapter concludes with an analysis of some of the major criticisms of constructivism and an overview of the constructivist research programme.

Making Things Possible

2020 ◽  
pp. 004912412092620
Author(s):  
Gabriel Abend
Keyword(s):  
Research Question ◽  
Social World ◽  
Sociological Research ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Causal Relationships ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
The Social ◽  
Good For ◽  
Important Kind

I argue that what-makes-it-possible questions are a distinct and important kind of sociological research question. What is social phenomenon P made possible or enabled by? Results won’t be about P’s causes and causal relationships, but about its enablers and enabling relationships. I examine the character of what-makes-it-possible questions and claims, how they can be empirically investigated, and what they’re good for. If I’m right, they provide a unique perspective on social phenomena, they show how the social world doesn’t come ready-made, and they open up new avenues for research.

Media and the Social Construction of Reality

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nick Couldry ◽  
Andreas Hepp
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Phenomenological Approach ◽  
Social World ◽  
Social Construction Of Reality ◽  
Media Technologies ◽  
Phenomenological Sociology ◽  
The Social ◽  
Forms Of Knowledge

In this chapter, the authors argue that a phenomenological approach to sociology only can be preserved if a version of sociology is developed that takes seriously the existence of media and the entanglement of digital media technologies and interfaces in every aspect of daily life. That means, in turn, taking seriously the roles that data extraction and data processing play in both the operations of digital media and the production of what counts as knowledge of the social world. If so, then some adjustments to other key assumptions must be made, for example about the social world’s transparency. But those adjustments are worth making in order to preserve the project of phenomenological sociology, which still has much to contribute to a sense of the tensions at work in the social world and its forms of knowledge. To outline this, the authors first discuss the consequences of a mediated life for social theory, then reflect on how digital media and data changed processes of the mediated construction reality, and finally introduce “deep mediatization” as a “sensitizing concept” for such an analysis.

8. Social Constructivism

2018 ◽  
pp. 234-261
Author(s):  
Robert Jackson ◽  
Georg Sørensen ◽  
Jørgen Møller
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Social Theory ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
International Political Economy ◽  
Social World ◽  
Constructivist Approach ◽  
European Cooperation ◽  
The Social ◽  
Important Approach ◽  
Social Constructivist Theory

This chapter examines the social constructivist theory of International Political Economy (IPE). It first discusses the rise of social constructivism and why it has established itself as an important approach in IR. It then considers constructivism as social theory, and more specifically as both a meta-theory about the nature of the social world and as a set of substantial theories of IR. Several examples of constructivist IR theory are presented, followed by reflections on the strengths and weaknesses of the constructivist approach. The chapter proceeds by exploring constructivist theories of international relations, focusing on cultures of anarchy, norms of International Society, the power of international organizations, a constructivist approach to European cooperation, and domestic formation of identity and norms. The chapter concludes with an analysis of some of the major criticisms of constructivism and by emphasising internal debates within constructivism.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document