Too Much or Too Little Knowledge?

1989 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 503-516
Author(s):  
Julius Gould
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Democracy ◽  
Think Tanks ◽  
Great Range ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Way

I HAD THE PRIVILEGElTASK OF ‘CONCLUDING’ THE CONFERENCE at which the articles in this issue of Government and Opposition were originally presented. Now, as then, I can take up only a few of the central issues within the presentations and discussions. My comments seek to underscore the great range of ‘classical’ and ‘contemporary’ questions which the authors address. These include, obviously enough, the nature of knowledge in the social sciences, with the word ‘sciences’ being broadly interpreted -not in any narrow, behavioural sense: the way periods of confidence in such knowledge fostered, and have been fostered by, the perspectives of social democracy: how such confidence has waxed and waned in recent years: how political actors act, even have to act, in advance of data: how modern politics is aided or hindered by the pressures that come from sectional interests — which must now be taken to include the ‘media’ and those who work in or near the ‘think-tanks’ that have proliferated in the last two decades. I do not attempt the impossible — namely any detailed exegesis of all the rich and varied topics that emerged.

Futures Honed

Futures ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 118-134
Author(s):  
Barbara Adam
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Original Work ◽  
Collective Responsibility ◽  
The Past ◽  
Writing Theory ◽  
Time Space ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Verse Form ◽  
The Way

This chapter comprises an interview between Barbara Adam and the editors, and is followed by Adam’s ‘Honing Futures’, which is presented in four short verses of distilled theory. In the interview Adam reflects on thirty-five years of futures-thinking rooted in her deeply original work on time and temporality, and her innovative response to qualitative and linear definitions of time within the social sciences. The interview continues with a discussion of the way Adam’s thinking on futures intersects in her work with ideas of ethics and collective responsibility politics and concludes with a brief rationale for writing theory in verse form. In ‘Honing Futures’, a piece of futures theory verse form, Adam charts the movements and moments in considerations of the Not Yet and futurity’s active creation: from pluralized imaginings of the future, to an increasingly tangible and narrower anticipated future, to future-making as designing and reality-creating performance. Collectively, the verses identify the varied complex interdependencies of time, space, and matter with the past and future in all iterations of honing and making futures.

scholarly journals We Need to Talk about Impact: Why Social Policy Academics need to Engage with the UK's Research Impact Agenda

2016 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-127 ◽  
Author(s):  
KATHERINE E. SMITH ◽  
ELLEN STEWART
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Health Inequalities ◽  
Research Impact ◽  
Policy Response ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Policy Relevance ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

AbstractOf all the social sciences, social policy is one of the most obviously policy-orientated. One might, therefore, expect a research and funding agenda which prioritises and rewards policy relevance to garner an enthusiastic response among social policy scholars. Yet, the social policy response to the way in which major funders and the Research Excellence Framework (REF) are now prioritising ‘impact’ has been remarkably muted. Elsewhere in the social sciences, ‘research impact’ is being widely debated and a wealth of concerns about the way in which this agenda is being pursued are being articulated. Here, we argue there is an urgent need for social policy academics to join this debate. First, we employ interviews with academics involved in health inequalities research, undertaken between 2004 and 2015, to explore perceptions, and experiences, of the ‘impact agenda’ (an analysis which is informed by a review of guidelines for assessing ‘impact’ and relevant academic literature). Next, we analyse high- and low-scoring REF2014 impact case studies to assess whether these concerns appear justified. We conclude by outlining how social policy expertise might usefully contribute to efforts to encourage, measure and reward research ‘impact’.

scholarly journals The Funny Side of Globalization: Humour and Humanity in Zapatista Framing

2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (S15) ◽  
pp. 21-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Olesen
Keyword(s):  
Social Movements ◽  
Decisive Role ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Subcomandante Marcos ◽  
The Way

This article argues that the literature on social movements and globalization has not paid sufficient attention to the way in which political actors who act globally try to overcome the social, cultural, and political distances that separate them. It introduces the concept of global framing to give focus to the discursive processes central to such “distance bridging”. In particular, it emphasizes how symbols and emotions are crucial in the framing of distance. Empirically, it discusses how the considerable global resonance created by the Zapatistas in Mexico is facilitated by a framing strategy, carried out mainly by the movement's spokesman, Subcomandante Marcos, in which humour, imperfection, and symbols play a decisive role.

Cultural Influences on Body Image and Eating Disorders

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eileen Anderson-Fye
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Eating Disorders ◽  
Body Image ◽  
Cultural Influences ◽  
Levels Of Analysis ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Theories ◽  
The Rich

Sociocultural factors have long been implicated in body image and eating disorders. Decades of data, drawn from multiple disciplines, consistently demonstrate the influence of culture on body image and eating disorders across several levels of analysis. This chapter engages the rich empirical literature on this subject to retheorize the role and importance of these contextual factors in light of anthropological and related social theories relevant to contemporary circumstances. Specifically, this chapter first analyzes and operationalizes what we mean by “culture” in body image and eating disorder scholarship, describes trends in salient sociocultural factors, and highlights the varying impacts of globalization where societies are increasingly interconnected. It also urges research that builds on current understandings by increasing collaborations among not only multiple disciplines within the social sciences but also biological and clinical sciences.

The social spaces of hearing apps: problems, partners and intermediaries

2019 ◽  
Vol 171 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-37
Author(s):  
Nicole Matthews ◽  
Isabelle Boisvert ◽  
Catherine McMahon ◽  
Catharine Lumby
Keyword(s):  
Media Studies ◽  
The Self ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Social Environments ◽  
Individual Health ◽  
Health Consumer ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
Start Ups ◽  
The Way

This article offers an analysis of the development of three hearing and communication apps, drawing on interviews with people involved in their production. While a central figure in the media studies literature on apps is the self-managing individual health consumer, this article argues that physical and social environments and relationships within them are central to the way the hearing apps are produced, circulated and used. Often emerging from commercial start-ups, hearing apps become aligned with – or indeed stand in for – various kinds of governmental initiatives, not only in health but also in education and economic development. Partnerships between government, research and commercial organisations and the need to work through app intermediaries to find their end users shaped the way apps create recognisable ‘problems’ to address. This problematising function of apps and its impact on the uptake and use of apps are the key areas for future research.

Opportunities and Challenges of New Technologies in Media and Communication: The Windhoek Declaration

2002 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 407-429
Author(s):  
THEMBISA MJWACU
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Communication Systems ◽  
Information Technologies ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Social Infrastructure ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media ◽  
Media And Communication ◽  
The Way

ABSTRACT The author of this essay argues that the success or failure of development depends on the availability of technology. The invention and development of new technologies are instrumental in changing the way people live, the way people communicate and the way people respond to their environment. However, despite the advantages of new technologies, the problem of access remains an enduring one. In South Africa, access to new communications and information technologies is limited to a few people owing to the high costs of these technologies. Therefore, the mere acquisition of new technology may not help that much to end the underdevelopment of many parts of the world, including South Africa. Mjwacu claims that the imbalance or gap that the use of new technology and the failure to development the social infrastructure needed to use this technology can lead directly to an infringement of people's right of access to the media. She argues that the emphasis needs to be placed on establishing community-based communication systems in countries such as South Africa to advance both their technological and social development.

scholarly journals Is bisexuality invisible? A review of sexualities scholarship 1970–2015

2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 663-681 ◽  
Author(s):  
Surya Monro ◽  
Sally Hines ◽  
Antony Osborne
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Identity Politics ◽  
Innovative Approach ◽  
Gay And Lesbian ◽  
Critical Commentary ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Way

This article provides a review of sexualities scholarship within the social sciences between 1970 and 2015. It takes an innovative approach by focusing on the way in which bisexuality is addressed in this body of literature. The article reveals the marginalisation, under-representation and invisibility of bisexuality within and across the social sciences in relation to both bisexual experience and identity. Reasons for this varied across the different eras, including the heterosexist nature of the literature, the impact of gay and lesbian-focused identity politics, and queer deconstructionism. In addition, patterns of bisexual erasure and invisibility were uneven, with some scholarship taking inclusive approaches or criticising prejudice against bisexuality. The initial findings of the review were enriched by critical commentary from key relevant sociologists and political scientists. The article concludes that future sexualities scholarship could be enhanced by greater consideration of bisexuality.

Complexity, Science and the Public

2005 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 113-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Suteanu
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Scientific Inquiry ◽  
Unexpected Result ◽  
Multiple Relationships ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Measurability Problem ◽  
Rule Out ◽  
The Way

This article addresses complexity by selecting some of its key aspects that share a common feature: the power to change. They seem to change not only the way the world is approached by scientists, but also the way this approach, the resulting perspectives and their multiple relationships, are interpreted. These main aspects are: (1) the challenge of measurability, with an unexpected result that escapes the gravitational field of the measurability problem; (2) the meaning of reproducibility and the redrawn boundaries of scientific inquiry, with implications for the social sciences; (3) the altered expectations concerning prediction, which seem to break with a glorious tradition of unquestioned technological success; and (4) the discovery of all-embracing patterns of events that unavoidably include large events, possibly perceived as ‘crises’, which one may hope to understand and confront, rather than rule out. The resulting geography, with its new landmarks, new relationships among its elements and new means of orientation, is expected to reach the public sooner or later, even if the effect – according to complexity theory itself – cannot be foreseen in detail. All these fibres of change are considered in the context of a fresh meaning of time and of a topology dominated by network concepts.

From Politik als Beruf to Politics as a Vocation

2007 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Borchert
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
World War Ii ◽  
Present Article ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
Political Sociology ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
World War ◽  
Classical Text ◽  
Modern Politics ◽  
The Social

Max Weber's 1919 lecture Politik als Beruf is still considered a classical text in the social sciences. The reception of the text in the Anglo-Saxon world has been profoundly shaped by the translation provided by Hans H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills, first appearing in 1946. Their Politics as a Vocation is more than a vivid transposition of Weber's rather peculiar German rhetoric—it is rendered in a way that suggests a certain interpretation and makes others highly improbable. The present article traces the reception of Weber's text back to certain decisions made by the translators after World War II. It argues that the translation emphasized philosophical and ethical parts of the text at the expense of others that were more geared toward a political sociology of modern politics. Moreover, the adoption of Weber's approach in empirical research was hindered if not foreclosed by a distorted presentation of his key typologies and some central concepts.

scholarly journals Technology and Narratives of Continuity in Transgender Experiences

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Amy Billingsley
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Lived Experience ◽  
Meaning Making ◽  
Fundamental Change ◽  
Trans People ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Media

This essay examines narratives of fundamental change, which portray a break in the continuity between a pre-transition and post-transition transgender subject, in accounts of transgender transitions. Narratives of fundamental change highlight the various changes that occur during transition and its disruptive effects upon a trans subject’s continuous identity. First, this essay considers the historical appearance of fundamental change narratives in the social sciences, the media, and their use by families of trans people, partners of trans people, and trans people themselves. After this is a consideration of Mark Johnson’s account of narrative as a meaning-making activity that occurs in the context of social norms. Johnson’s account is then applied to narratives of fundamental change to explain why these narratives occur, especially in relation to social norms and lived experience. The essay concludes by considering the trajectory of fundamental change narratives, looking at emerging transgender narratives, which stress a more integrated, complex account of transgender lives.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document