scholarly journals Replicability in Empirical Legal Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason M. Chin ◽  
Kathryn Zeiler
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Science Volume ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Statistical Issues

As part of a broader methodological reform movement, scientists are increasingly interested in improving the replicability of their research. Replicability allows others to perform replications to explore potential errors and statistical issues that might call the original results into question. Little attention, however, has been paid to the state of replicability in the field of empirical legal research (ELR). Quality is especially important in this field because empirical legal researchers produce work that is regularly relied upon by courts and other legal bodies. In this review, we summarize the current state of ELR relative to the broader movement toward replicability in the social sciences. As part of that aim, we summarize recent collective replication efforts in ELR and transparency and replicability guidelines adopted by journals that publish ELR. Based on this review, ELR seems to be lagging other fields in implementing reforms. We conclude with suggestions for reforms that might encourage improved replicability. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Volume 17 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Replicability in Empirical Legal Research

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jason Chin ◽  
Kathryn Zeiler
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Review Article ◽  
The State ◽  
Reform Movement ◽  
Legal Research ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Statistical Issues

As part of a broader methodological reform movement, scientists are increasingly interested in improving the replicability of their research. Replicability allows others to perform replications to explore potential errors and statistical issues that might call the original results into question. Little attention, however, has been paid to the state of replicability in the field of empirical legal research (ELR). Quality is especially important in this field because empirical legal researchers produce work that is regularly relied upon by courts and other legal bodies. In this review article, we summarize the current state of ELR relative to the broader movement towards replicability in the social sciences. As part of that aim, we summarize recent collective replication efforts in ELR and transparency and replicability guidelines adopted by journals that publish ELR. Based on this review, ELR seems to be lagging other fields in implementing reforms. We conclude with suggestions for reforms that might encourage improved replicability.

scholarly journals Machine Learning for Social Science: An Agnostic Approach

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Grimmer ◽  
Margaret E. Roberts ◽  
Brandon M. Stewart
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Scientific Data ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Learning Methods ◽  
Machine Learning Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

Social scientists are now in an era of data abundance, and machine learning tools are increasingly used to extract meaning from data sets both massive and small. We explain how the inclusion of machine learning in the social sciences requires us to rethink not only applications of machine learning methods but also best practices in the social sciences. In contrast to the traditional tasks for machine learning in computer science and statistics, when machine learning is applied to social scientific data, it is used to discover new concepts, measure the prevalence of those concepts, assess causal effects, and make predictions. The abundance of data and resources facilitates the move away from a deductive social science to a more sequential, interactive, and ultimately inductive approach to inference. We explain how an agnostic approach to machine learning methods focused on the social science tasks facilitates progress across a wide range of questions. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Political Science, Volume 24 is May 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Advancing Socioeconomic Rights Through Interdisciplinary Factfinding: Opportunities and Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Knuckey ◽  
Joshua D. Fisher ◽  
Amanda M. Klasing ◽  
Tess Russo ◽  
Margaret L. Satterthwaite
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Mixed Methods ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Science Volume ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Limited Resources ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Socioeconomic Rights ◽  
Human Rights Movement

The human rights movement is increasingly using interdisciplinary, multidisciplinary, mixed-methods, and quantitative factfinding. There has been too little analysis of these shifts. This article examines some of the opportunities and challenges of these methods, focusing on the investigation of socioeconomic human rights. By potentially expanding the amount and types of evidence available, factfinding's accuracy and persuasiveness can be strengthened, bolstering rights claims. However, such methods can also present significant challenges and may pose risks in individual cases and to the human rights movement generally. Interdisciplinary methods can be costly in human, financial, and technical resources; are sometimes challenging to implement; may divert limited resources from other work; can reify inequalities; may produce “expertise” that disempowers rightsholders; and could raise investigation standards to an infeasible or counterproductive level. This article includes lessons learned and questions to guide researchers and human rights advocates considering mixed-methods human rights factfinding. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Volume 17 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Solar Geoengineering: Social Science, Legal, Ethical, and Economic Frameworks

2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 399-423 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane A. Flegal ◽  
Anna-Maria Hubert ◽  
David R. Morrow ◽  
Juan B. Moreno-Cruz
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Ethical Concerns ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Empirical Social Science ◽  
Solar Geoengineering ◽  
Public Views

Solar geoengineering research in the social sciences and humanities has largely evolved in parallel with research in the natural sciences. In this article, we review the current state of the literature on the ethical, legal, economic, and social science aspects of this emerging area. We discuss issues regarding the framing and futures of solar geoengineering, empirical social science on public views and public engagement, the evolution of ethical concerns regarding research and deployment, and the current legal and economic frameworks and emerging proposals for the regulation and governance of solar geoengineering.

Infrastructures and Laws: Publics and Publicness

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedict Kingsbury ◽  
Nahuel Maisley
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Online Publication ◽  
Power Relations ◽  
Science Volume ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Public Action ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Nancy Fraser

Infrastructures are technical-social assemblages infused in politics and power relations. They spur public action, prompting increased scholarly reference to the practices of infrastructural publics. This article explores the normative and conceptual meanings of infrastructures, publics, and infrastructural publics. It distills from political theory traditions of Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas, and Nancy Fraser a normative ideal of publics composed of the persons subject to a particular configuration of power relations that may significantly affect their autonomy. Autonomy can be seriously affected not only by existing or planned infrastructures, with their existing or anticipating users and workers and objectors, but also by the lack of an infrastructure or by the terms of infrastructural exclusions, rationings, channelings, and fiscal impositions. Legal-institutional mechanisms provide some of the means for infrastructural publics to act and be heard, and for conflicts between or within different publics to be addressed, operationalizing legal ideas of publicness. These mechanisms are often underprovided or misaligned with infrastructure. One reason is the murkiness and insecurity of relations of infrastructural publics to legal publics constituted or framed as such by institutions and instruments of law and governance. We argue that thoughtful integration of infrastructural and legal scaling and design, accompanied by a normative aspiration to publicness, may have beneficial effects. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Volume 17 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Where Is This Story Going? A Critical Analysis of the Emerging Field of Narrative Criminology

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shadd Maruna ◽  
Marieke Liem
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Online Publication ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
History Of ◽  
Narrative Scholarship

Over the past decade, a growing body of literature has emerged under the umbrella of narrative criminology. We trace the origins of this field to narrative scholarship in the social sciences more broadly and review the recent history of criminological engagement in this field. We then review contemporary developments, paying particular attention to research around desistance and victimology. Our review highlights the most important critiques and challenges for narrative criminology and suggests fruitful directions in moving forward. We conclude by making a case for the consolidation and integration of narrative criminology, in hopes that this movement becomes more than an isolated clique. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 4 is January 13, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Populism Studies: The Case for Theoretical and Comparative Reconstruction

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cihan Tuğal
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
The United States ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
The Past ◽  
Main Challenge ◽  
The Social ◽  
Historical Methodology ◽  
Comparative Reconstruction ◽  
Blind Spots

Studies of populism have shifted from substantive to discursive/performative and institutional perspectives in recent decades. This shift resolved some long-standing problems but insulated the analysis of populism from theoretical and methodological debates in the social sciences. Theoretical restrictions have gone hand in hand with geographical neglect: The near-exclusive focus on the United States, Europe, and Latin America reinforces the blind spots of these existing approaches. An integration of overlooked regions holds the potential for theoretical reconstruction, even though such comparative broadening could as well simply reproduce the persistent impasses. Moreover, post-2016 developments have induced a return to substantive issues, throwing into sharp relief what populism studies have been missing during the past decades. The main challenge today is synthesizing socioeconomic analyses with institutionalist and discourse-theoretical advances without falling into eclecticism. Breaking away from the entrenched regional orientations to embrace a more global-historical methodology could help such an endeavor. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Sociology, Volume 47 is July 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals Observations on the Intellectual History of Ethnology and other Social Sciences in Yugoslavia

1969 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel M. Halpern ◽  
E. A. Hammel
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Folk Theory ◽  
Current State ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of

As anthropologists turn increasingly to the study of complex societies, they are led to reflect on the role that social science plays in national ideologies and the ways in which the current state and development of social science reflect other cultural states and processes. Indeed, such reflections can usefully be turned on our own society. One sees that it is much more appropriate to discard old notions of the distinction between ‘science’ and ‘folklore’ and to regard the social science of a particular society, however sophisticated and presumably objective, as an important part of its subjective ideology about itself and the world and thus a part of its own folk theory about the relations of man to society and of men to men. This paper is a sketch of some of the interrelationships between Yugoslav social science and other aspects of Yugoslav culture, with primary emphasis on ethnology.

Historical Persistence

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra Cirone ◽  
Thomas B. Pepinsky
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
New Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Designs ◽  
Art Research ◽  
Political Economic

This article reviews the literature on historical persistence in political science and the related social sciences. Historical persistence refers to causal effects that ( a) operate over time scales of a decade or more and ( b) explain spatial variation in political, economic, or social outcomes. Although political scientists have always drawn from history, the historical persistence literature represents a new approach to historical research in the social sciences that places a premium on credible research designs for causal inference. We discuss regional and national coverage, state-of-the-art research designs, analytical and inferential challenges, and mechanisms and theories of persistence, drawing broadly from the contemporary literature in political science and economics. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Political Science, Volume 25 is May 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Transitional Justice and Property: Inextricably Linked

2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Alviar García
Keyword(s):  
Civil War ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Transitional Justice ◽  
Online Publication ◽  
Science Volume ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Academic Literature ◽  
Peace Negotiations ◽  
Gender Biases

This article analyzes the different ways in which transitional justice has dealt with demands over property restitution and redistribution. To do this, it presents a review of academic literature regarding how to define reparation, the justifications for restitution, and the debate regarding property redistribution as a part of peace negotiations. The article ends with a synthesis of the different critiques raised to the ways in which restitution and redistribution of property have been legally structured. These critiques include foregrounding neoliberalism (as an economic ideal and a governance project) in transitional justice, unveiling gender biases as well as demands for more comprehensive redistribution in the aftermath of civil war. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Volume 17 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

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