Opportunities and Constraints of the Disciplines

2021 ◽  
pp. 128-150
Author(s):  
Matt Grossmann
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Empirical Analysis ◽  
Interdisciplinary Work ◽  
Disciplinary Structure ◽  
Contemporary Practice ◽  
Applied Fields ◽  
Science Disciplines

Our disciplinary structure places constraints on research, but interdisciplinarity also creates challenges. The basic social science disciplines—political science, economics, sociology, psychology, and anthropology—each tend toward a particular view of human nature and have disciplinary prejudices regarding topics and methods. Interdisciplinary work has identified these differences and worked toward integration, especially in common applied fields, such as education and public policy. Each discipline’s historical inheritance shapes contemporary practice. Rather than dismantling or reformulation of disciplines, strong and self-aware disciplines with scholarly exchange among them have advanced theory and empirical analysis.

Remembering Our Roots

2011 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 388-388
Author(s):  
Nathan J. Brown
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Voting Behavior ◽  
Regime Change ◽  
Political Change ◽  
Middle Eastern ◽  
Regional Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Science Disciplines

Scholars of the Middle East based in social science disciplines—especially my own, political science—are likely to feel a bit more welcome by their colleagues as a result of recent events in the Middle East. Not only will we be informative conversationalists in the hallways for a while because of our regional expertise, but also, far more profoundly, the sorts of things that political scientists study, from voting patterns to regime change, are suddenly interesting subjects in the region. This is not to say that Middle East elections were not studied in the past or that research on political change was not undertaken—far from it. But the questions posed, the terms used, and tools employed were often different from those more prevalent in the discipline. Political scientists focusing on the Middle East are therefore likely to find this a gratifying time, ripe with opportunities for comparative and cross-regional analysis. And those nonregional specialists whose interests lie in a wide variety of topics from voting behavior to revolutions may work harder to incorporate Middle Eastern cases into their own work.

scholarly journals Ten Misconceptions Concerning Neurobiology and Politics

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 475-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
John R. Hibbing
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Political Science ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Life ◽  
The Political ◽  
Constructive Dialogue ◽  
Scientific Endeavor ◽  
Neurobiological Lens ◽  
Made In ◽  
Science Disciplines

Political science is far behind the other social science disciplines in incorporating neurobiological concepts, techniques, and theory. In recent years progress has been made in closing this gap but many in the political science mainstream view the movement with concern or even horror. Though a healthy dose of skepticism is appropriate and beneficial to the scientific endeavor, negative reactions to viewing politics through a neurobiological lens are often based on fundamental misconceptions regarding both neurobiology and politics. In this Reflections essay, I address ten of these misconceptions, including the beliefs that biology is deterministic, reductionist, unnecessary, irrelevant, normatively dangerous, and ideologically biased. The goal is to encourage a constructive dialogue on the relevance of neurobiology to political life—a dialogue that would in turn improve research in the fledgling subfield and lead to innovations in political science by encouraging new ways of conceptualizing and analyzing the variables at the discipline's core.

Localization of social science research in selected academic disciplines in South Korea

2021 ◽  
pp. 001139212110485
Author(s):  
Jung Cheol Shin ◽  
Jae Woon Huang ◽  
Jin-kwon Lee ◽  
Youngeun An
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
South Korea ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Western Theory ◽  
Applied Fields

Social science contributes to social development when theory and research topic are linked to its social context. However, in practice most social scientists in South Korea tend to explain their social issues and problems through mainstream theoretical perspectives that were primarily developed in the West. This study investigates how much social science research is localized in four selected social science disciplines (sociology, political science, public administration, and education) in South Korea. The study analyzes articles published in one representative domestic journal in each discipline to assess the localization of knowledge production during the last three decades (1988–2017). It was found that the local knowledge-base of Korean social science research is relatively weak though it has been continuously increasing during the last three decades. It was also found that knowledge production in social sciences is reliant on Western theory even though the research topics are locally embedded. In addition, the findings revealed that there are noticeable differences between the applied fields (public administration and education) and the pure fields (sociology and political science). Applied fields of public administration and education are more locally embedded than pure fields of sociology and political science. This study proposes that social science research in South Korea should draw more on indigenous knowledge and be less reliant on Western theory in the future.

scholarly journals Does Sociology Need Open Science?

Societies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Nate Breznau
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Open Science ◽  
The State ◽  
General Overview ◽  
Current Practices ◽  
Science Disciplines

Reliability, transparency, and ethical crises pushed many social science disciplines toward dramatic changes, in particular psychology and more recently political science. This paper discusses why sociology should also change. It reviews sociology as a discipline through the lens of current practices, definitions of sociology, positions of sociological associations, and a brief consideration of the arguments of three highly influential yet epistemologically diverse sociologists: Weber, Merton, and Habermas. It is a general overview for students and sociologists to quickly familiarize themselves with the state of sociology or explore the idea of open science and its relevance to their discipline.

Temporality of Authoritarian Regimes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Libman
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Temporal Dynamics ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
Primary Focus ◽  
Authoritarian Elections ◽  
Science Disciplines

The chapter surveys the existing research in political science and other social science disciplines investigating the temporal dynamics of authoritarian regimes. The chapter’s primary focus is on the incremental changes occurring in autocracies between their emergence and collapse, which has received relatively little attention in the scholarly literature so far. The chapter looks, in particular, at the evolution of authoritarian regimes toward individual or collective rule; at the regime cycles, caused, for example, by authoritarian elections; and at succession crises associated with death or resignation of leaders. Furthermore, it addresses the question of whether authoritarian regimes are better able to implement long-term and future-oriented policies than democracies. The chapter identifies a number of gaps in the literature on authoritarian dynamics relevant to future research.

Nationalism and Democratization in East Central Europe: Lessons From the Past: An Essay

1994 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-34
Author(s):  
Joseph Rothschild
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
The Other ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The Past ◽  
Science Disciplines

Over the past several decades the discipline of political science has, perhaps, degraded its competence and hence its eligibility for handling this issue by saddling itself with a flawed language, or, rather, flawed use of language for doing so. At any rate, that is true of political science as written and taught in English. Not that the other social-science disciplines are in better shape (perhaps History is). Still, political scientists have, for example, committed the following intellectual offenses:

scholarly journals Time and Mobility after the Anthropocene

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 5159
Author(s):  
Pasi Heikkurinen ◽  
Toni Ruuska ◽  
Anu Valtonen ◽  
Outi Rantala
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Sustainable Change ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Sustainability Theory ◽  
Science Disciplines

The Special Issue on ‘After the Anthropocene: Time and Mobility’ is published. It discusses the geological time to follow the human-dominated epoch and ways to move there. In addition to this editorial, a total of five articles are published in the issue. The articles engage with a variety of social science disciplines—ranging from economics and sociology to philosophy and political science—and connect to the natural science insights on the Anthropocene. The issue calls for going beyond anthropocentrism in sustainability theory and practice in order to exit the Anthropocene with applications and insights in the contexts of politics (Ruuska et al., 2020), energy (Mohorčich, 2020), tourism (Rantala et al., 2020), food (Mazac and Tuomisto, 2020) and management (Küpers, 2020). We hope that you will find this Special Issue interesting and helpful in contributing to sustainable change.

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