Formal Modelling

Author(s):  
Érick Duchesne ◽  
Arthur Silve

This chapter focuses on formal modelling. A formal model is the mathematical exposition of reasoning. Its purpose is to formulate consistent and rigorously stated hypotheses, which often shed light on the causation of a particular social phenomenon. Often, in the social sciences, a formal model is valuable because it can accurately predict behaviour and describe an actual (although unobservable) causal mechanism. Thus, formal models also allow plenty of space for deductive reasoning. Whether they clarify hypotheses or describe a mechanism, the success of formal models remains a matter of debate. The chapter then presents a few examples of useful models and considers the most frequent criticisms of formal modelling in order to identify a series of good practices for its proper use.

2017 ◽  
Vol 72 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pierre Charbonnier

This article aims to shed light on the emergence of the Anthropocene as a concept within the social sciences and philosophy. It frames this evolution in the wider context of a crisis of knowledge, confronted with the need to consider global climate change as both an empirical ground and an inescapable political horizon. The central hypothesis is that the organization of knowledge concerning the relationships between modernity and nature has undergone a profound shift over the last decade, necessitating a reconfiguration of the two main concepts on which this knowledge relied: risk and limits. To consider the present situation through the concept of the Anthropocene is to imply that the rationality of risk (i.e., the suspension of modern political autonomy) and the notion of a fundamental limit to material development can no longer be considered separately. In the final part of the article, this hypothesis makes it possible to discuss some aspects of our current epistemological configuration.


2021 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-86
Author(s):  
Piotr Binder

This paper has two principal goals. The first is reflection over the available source literature, indicating the scant interest in it in the Polish social sciences, and in sociology in particular. The second goal is to present the findings from the first round of qualitative research conducted during lockdown, focusing on the experiences of people working remotely. The analyses of the material accumulated focused on how remote work was imagined prior to the pandemic, on the shock of transition to working remotely, on how a new rhythm took shape in the context of lifestyles, and on a comprehensive appraisal of the remote work experience, including prospects for the future. The findings indicate that despite the dramatic circumstances behind the imposition of remote working and the enormous difficulties experienced by the respondents, they are openminded regarding various options for continuing work in a remote mode. At the same time it proved pertinent to supplement boundary theory as the theoretical interpretative framework with a perspective of the respondents’ lifestyles and current place in life (the life-cycle effect), allowing for a better understanding of the respondents’ experiences and outlining prospects for rewording the schematic representations of this social phenomenon.


2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 467-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Horne ◽  
Stefanie Mollborn

Norms are a foundational concept in sociology. Following a period of skepticism about norms as overly deterministic and as paying too little attention to social conflict, inequalities, and agency, the past 20 years have seen a proliferation of norms research across the social sciences. Here we focus on the burgeoning research in sociology to answer questions about where norms come from, why people enforce them, and how they are applied. To do so, we rely on three key theoretical approaches in the literature—consequentialist, relational, and agentic. As we apply these approaches, we explore their implications for what are arguably the two most fundamental issues in sociology—social order and inequality. We conclude by synthesizing and building on existing norms research to produce an integrated theoretical framework that can shed light on aspects of norms that are currently not well understood—in particular, their change and erosion.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 205979911876841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Wunsch ◽  
Michel Mouchart ◽  
Federica Russo

One method for causal analysis in the social sciences is structural modeling. Structural models, as used in this article, model the (causal) mechanism for a social phenomenon by recursively decomposing the multivariate distribution of the variables of interest. Often, however, one does not achieve a complete decomposition in terms of single variables but in terms of “blocks” of variables only. Papers giving an overview of this issue are nevertheless rare. The purpose of this article is to categorize distinct types of block-recursivity and to examine, in a multidisciplinary perspective, the implications of block-recursivity for causal attribution. A probabilistic approach to causality is first developed in the framework of a structural model. The article then examines block-recursivity due to the presence of contingent conditions, of interaction, and of conjunctive causes. It also discusses causal attribution when information on the ordering of the variables is incomplete. The article concludes by emphasizing, in particular, the importance of properly specifying the population of reference.


Sociologija ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 50 (4) ◽  
pp. 355-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Palmberger

Nostalgia for Yugoslavia is a social phenomenon which prevails in present-day Mostar as well as elsewhere in the Yugoslav successor states. Even if attempts are made by the elites of local politics to erase traces of the Yugoslav past (especially in Croat dominated West Mostar), a good part of Mostar's population still nostalgically remembers that period. Until recently, nostalgia has been neglected as a subject of research in the social sciences and has been acknowledged - if at all - only as a phenomenon oriented towards the past. Recent studies, however, have emphasized a utopian character of nostalgia. It is particularly interesting to further investigate this aspect in the context of post-socialism. This paper discusses the selected narratives of two women whom I encountered during my fieldwork conducted between 2005 and 2008, and their relationship to Yugoslavia. It is shown that differences in their narratives can be related to their nationality and family backgrounds, but to the same degree - if not more so - to their age and the stage in life they are in. At the end of the paper I shall tackle the question whether nostalgia for Yugoslavia can hold as a potential vision for a better future and, if so, under which conditions.


Author(s):  
Craig Rawlings ◽  
John Mohr

This article considers four of the ways in which measurement practices have been applied to create formal models of culture in the social sciences. It first examines the nature of formal measurement models in the social sciences and compares this mode of scholarship to more hermeneutic styles of research, paying attention to debates over method in the social sciences before and after the cultural turn. It then discusses four different types of formal (measurement) models that have been especially important to the cultural sciences over the last century: pre-cultural turn/non-hermeneutic, pre-cultural turn/hermeneutic, post-cultural turn/non-hermeneutic, and post-cultural turn/hermeneutic. It also cites an exemplar figure for each model, namely, Alfred Kroeber, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Paul DiMaggio, and Harrison White, respectively. Finally, it revisits the problem of how to conceptualize a scientific hermeneutics by comparing the theorization of the practice of data analysis to Paul Ricoeur’s theorization of the practice of text analysis.


Author(s):  
Michael J. Beran

There is growing interest and pressure in the social sciences to find ways to address the so-called “replication crisis” in psychology. This includes increasing transparency and good practices in all areas of experimental research, and in particular to promote attempts at replication. Comparative psychology has a long history of efforts to replicate and extend previous research, but it is often difficult to do this when highly specialized methods or uncommon species are being studied. I propose that comparative researchers make greater use of pre-registration as a way to ensure good practices, and I outline some of the ways in which this can be accomplished.


2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-50
Author(s):  
Tomasz Czapla ◽  
Ewa Walińska

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to identify the relationship between accounting science and management sciences in the light of the formal separation of disciplines in the field of social sciences in Poland, and to indicate the consequences of this separation for the devel-opment of economic sciences, which, regardless of legal regulations, also include accounting. Methodology/approach: The considerations in the article are presented against the views presented in the literature by selected authors and the position of the scientific community on the research interests of the discipline of management and quality sciences. The article uses the method of critical analysis and synthesis of opinions of other authors as well as deductive reasoning. Findings: Accounting, as one integrated system of economic measurement – regardless of legal regulations in the field of science classification – is an integral part of organization management, which means that it should constitute a sub-discipline of management and quality sciences. Research limitations/implications: Qualifying the scientific achievements of accounting researchers in Poland to the disciplines distinguished within the social sciences may have a significant impact on the results of the evaluation of science for 2017-2021. Originality/value: The article proposes solutions for the classification of social science disciplines (including accounting) based on formally combining, not isolating them, which favors the development of an interdisciplinary approach to scientific research


Author(s):  
Henry Forero-Medina ◽  
José Miguel Fonseca Sandoval ◽  
Diego Mauricio Sánchez ◽  
Yurley Patricia Benitez ◽  
Jhonatan Rodríguez

El presente texto es una aproximación metodológica y conceptualsociocultural desde una mirada crítica, decolonial, exploratoria e imaginativa, conla cual se pretende establecer algunos presupuestos y ejes de análisis que permitancomprender el fenómeno social de la centralidad discursiva de lo jurídico-políticohegemónico. A su vez, pretende propiciar debates y reflexiones sobre la condiciónsocial, el lazo social y el sentido social mediante otros enfoques y perspectivas deíndole interdisciplinaria, como elemento característico de un modo de pensar yhacer ciencias sociales situadas y emergentes. Es así que en un primer momento serevisarán los aportes y atributos del análisis crítico del discurso; en el segundo ytercer momentos se describirá y sustentará el trazo y la fundamentación de la metáforade las ondas junto con el de la semiosfera estatal, como estrategias figurativasde las relaciones de dominación jurídicopolíticamente mediadas y espacializadas; y en el último se abordará la relevancia de la contraposición entre los conceptosde pueblo y multitud y su incidencia en la potencialidad de lo emancipatorio yla resignificación del espacio discursivo constituyente. Al final, plantearemos algunasconsideraciones a manera de conclusión.The present text is a methodological and sociocultural conceptualapproach from a critical, decolonial, exploratory and imaginative perspective, withwhich it is intended to establish some assumptions and axes of analysis that allowunderstanding the social phenomenon of the discursive centrality of the hegemonicjuridical-political, as well as encouraging debates and reflections on the socialcondition, the social bond and the social sense through other interdisciplinary approachesand perspectives, as a characteristic element of a way of thinking anddoing situated and emerging social sciences. Thus, at a first moment the contributionsand attributes of the critical analysis of discourse will be reviewed; in thesecond and third moments, the outline and the foundation of the wave metaphorwill be described and sustained together with that of the state semiosphere, asfigurative strategies of the politically mediated and spatialized relations of legaldomination, in the last the relevance will be addressed of the contrast between theconcepts of people and the multitude and their impact on the potentiality of theemancipatory and the resignification of the discursive constituent space, and at theend some considerations.


Author(s):  
Auke Willems

This chapter reflects on contextual analysis, which examines the environment in which a given phenomenon operates. Contextual analysis is used widely in social sciences, such as history, managerial and leadership studies, organizational theory, business studies, and political sciences. It is useful for identifying trends and topics within unstructured data (contexts). In a sense, contextual analysis helps create order out of chaos. The main aim of contextual analysis is to assess when and how contexts shape a social phenomenon and vice versa. Contexts can be, inter alia, historical, institutional, cultural, demographic, technological, psychological, ideological, ontological, and epistemological. A wide body of scholarship has developed on the topic of contextual analysis. The chapter reviews the literature briefly and identify clues and themes relevant to the social sciences.


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