Social Science in Brown’s Path: Social Contact and Integration Revisited,

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martha Minow
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Academic Success ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Integration ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Research Field ◽  
The State ◽  
Racial Relations ◽  
Social Opportunities ◽  
State Of Affairs

The architects of Brown v. Board of Education soldiered through long struggles and many obstacles, but even they would probably be surprised by the state of affairs emerging half a century following the decision. Brown influenced expanding use of social sciences by lawyers pursuing social change and especially educational reforms. The state of racial integration in education might be stunningly disappointing, but Brown has also produced unexpected dividends addressing historic educational disadvantages based on gender, disability, language, immigrant status, poverty, sexual orientation, and religion. This dual legacy of disappointment and promise raises profound questions about the priority the nation gives not just to equal opportunity but also to social integration, the movement of individuals from previously excluded or subordinated groups into the social mainstream where they can join others in pursuing opportunities and enriching society. Because this aspiration gained support from social science evidence in the Brown litigation itself, this chapter considers the strengths and limitations of social science research on social integration, including research launched in the wake of the Brown litigation. The boost Brown gave to the field of social psychology to advance racial equality has some irony, given the reliance by defenders of racial segregation on eugenics and other “scientific” theories of their day. The contribution of social psychology to the cause of racial justice is particularly contested, as many critics have contended that its use contributed to narrowing policy debates to a focus on psychological damage rather than structures of racial oppression and the role of community supports in academic success. It might even be fair to conclude that when it comes to racial relations in the United States, there is more success in the growth of the research field studying social integration than there is success in actual social integration. Hence, paying attention to contemporary social science in assessing how social integration affects academic achievement, social cohesion, individual development, economic and social opportunities, and civic engagement and democracy means remaining mindful of the limitations of research and continuing to subject its assumptions to scrutiny.

Navigeren in het onderzoeksveld en het onderzoekersveld: reflecties op onderzoekspositionaliteit in (vermeend) insideronderzoek

KWALON ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-51
Author(s):  
Jing Hiah
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Insider Research ◽  
Labour Relations ◽  
Research Findings ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract Navigating the research and researchers’ field: Reflections on positionality in (assumed) insider research To challenge rigid ideas about objectivity in social science research, qualitative researchers question their own subjectivity in the research process. In such endeavors, the focus is mainly on the positionality of the researcher vis-à-vis their respondents in the research field. In this contribution, I argue that the positionality of the researcher in academia, what I refer to as the researchers’ field, is equally important as it influences the way research findings are received and evaluated. Through reflections on positionality in my insider research concerning labour relations and exploitation in Chinese migrant businesses in the Netherlands and Romania, I explore how my positionality as an insider negatively influenced my credibility and approachability in the researchers’ field. I conclude that it is necessary to pay more attention to researchers’ positionality in academia as it may shed light on and make it possible to discuss the written and unwritten standards of researchers’ credibility and approachability as an academic in the researchers’ field. Accordingly, this could provide insights into the causes of inequalities in academia and contribute to the current challenge for more diversity in academia.

scholarly journals The Social Psychology of the Black Lives Matter Meme and Movement

2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 543-547 ◽  
Author(s):  
Colin Wayne Leach ◽  
Aerielle M. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Racial Bias ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
The Social ◽  
Dual Pathway

Since the 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, a string of publicized police killings of unarmed Black men and women has brought sustained attention to the issue of racial bias in the United States. Recent Department of Justice investigations and an expanding set of social science research have added to the empirical evidence that these publicized incidents are emblematic of systemic racism in the application of the law. The Black Lives Matter meme and movement are prominent responses to racism that have animated intense interest and support, especially among African Americans. We summarize recent social science research on Black Lives Matter. As a first step toward understanding the social psychology of the meme and the movement, we apply the dynamic dual-pathway model of protest to Black Lives Matter. Examinations of the dynamics of real-world movements such as Black Lives Matter may enrich psychology conceptually, methodologically, and practically.

Welcome Frustrations with the Climate: Comment on Redclift

2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Gross
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Environmental Sociology ◽  
The State ◽  
Sociological Analysis ◽  
Climate Research ◽  
Disciplinary Problems

Abstract: Redclift (2011) provided a timely and perhaps deliberately provocative overview of sociological writings on climate change and the disciplinary problems of a post carbon world for environmental sociology. This comment emphasizes that he never actually clarifies what exactly are those problems that sociology faces in its attempt to open up a space for itself in the field of climate research. This omission also leads to unnecessary claims regarding the state of social science research on climate change as well as unspecified calls for more interdisciplinarity in sociological analysis of contemporary societies’ carbon dependence.

scholarly journals Ecology and Science Fiction. Managing Imagination in the Age of the Anthropocene

2021 ◽  
pp. 79-97
Author(s):  
Grażyna Gajewska
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Science Fiction ◽  
Environmental Policies ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Social Imagination ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Climate Crisis ◽  
Disaster Science

When formulating proecological strategies, social imagination is devoted relatively little attention. Contribution of the humanities to the management in the age of the Anthropocene is most often perceived as explaining threats that we and the future human and non-human beings will have to face as a result of irresponsible environmental policies. Hence, the presumed task of the humanities (and social science) consists primarily in analyzing and presenting the causes and the processes which culminated in the climate crisis and the decline of biodiversity. However, such an approach does not allow this knowledge to be actively engaged in constructing alternative, proecological attitudes. Consequently, I argue in this paper that in order for the state of affairs to change one requires not only new scientific tools (methodology, language), but also new sensitivity and aesthetics. The author argues that the challenges of the current times, resulting from environmental change, destruction of habitats and ecological disasters, direct our sensibilities and aesthetics ever more tangibly towards the fantastic: horror, science fiction, or fantasy. However, while ecohorror mainly exposes the negative aftermath of the Anthropocene – culminating in the inevitable disaster – science fiction offers leeway for a more speculative approach, enabling one to construct such visions of reality in which multispecies justice will be observed and cultivated. It is therefore suggested that there is much need for a science fiction aesthetic and narration that would be capable of guiding us out of the anthropocentric entanglement and the Anthropocene into the Chthulucene (as conceived by Haraway).

Institutions Encouraging Competition, Instrumentalism, and Meaningless Research

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mats Alvesson ◽  
Yiannis Gabriel ◽  
Roland Paulsen
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Mass Education ◽  
Scientific Institutions ◽  
System P ◽  
Institutional Competition ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The Right

The rise of mass education has led to mass research—quantity dominates quality. A ruthless institutional competition for status, plus academics pushing to get published in the ‘right’, career-enhancing journals, has led to the fetishization of journal outputs even when they are of little meaning or value to society. This situation is now endemic within the system of academic research and publication, and is strongly driven and sustained by academics themselves, even when they are unwilling to admit it. Academics, both individually and collectively, exercise considerable control over the content and nature of social science research, its scrutiny, assessment, and dissemination. They also have considerable control over the practices of various scientific institutions, including universities and their departments, funding bodies, conferences, and publications. Social science researchers underestimate and diminish their own responsibility for this state of affairs and sometimes prematurely adopt a victim position, blaming an impersonal system.

Stathis Kalyvas on 20 years of studying political violence

2020 ◽  
pp. 263300242097295
Author(s):  
Stathis Kalyvas ◽  
Scott Straus
Keyword(s):  
Graduate Students ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
The State ◽  
Scholarly Research ◽  
Key Terms ◽  
Research To Policy ◽  
State Of The Field

Stathis Kalyvas is one of the pioneers of social science research on political violence. In this interview with Scott Straus, Kalyvas reflects critically on the state of the field, on the risks of welding scholarly research to policy, on speaking to histories of violence in particular places, on defining key terms such as violence and terrorism, and on moving up and down the ladder of abstraction. He also speaks about his ambitious new book that seeks to synthesize the field of political violence. He ends with a stinging critique of research that privileges method over substance and with some reflections for graduate students entering the field.

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