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.

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 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 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.

A Note on “Public Policy”

1973 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 661-664 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Vaison
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Government Policy ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Studies ◽  
Policy Analysts ◽  
Government Body

Normally in political studies the term public policy is construed to encompass the societally binding directives issued by a society's legitimate government. We usually consider government, and only government, as being able to “authoritatively allocate values.” This common conception pervades the literature on government policy-making, so much so that it is hardly questioned by students and practitioners of political science. As this note attempts to demonstrate, some re-thinking seems to be in order. For purposes of analysis in the social sciences, this conceptualization of public policy tends to obscure important realities of modern corporate society and to restrict unnecessarily the study of policy-making. Public policy is held to be public simply and solely because it originates from a duly legitimated government, which in turn is held to have the authority (within specified limits) of formulating and implementing such policy. Public policy is public then, our usual thinking goes, because it is made by a body defined somewhat arbitrarily as “public”: a government or some branch of government. All other policy-making is seen as private; it is not public (and hence to lie essentially beyond the scope of the disciplines of poliitcal science and public administration) because it is duly arrived at by non-governmental bodies. Thus policy analysts lead us to believe that public policy is made only when a government body acts to consider some subject of concern, and that other organizations are not relevant to the study of public policy.

Political Science and Public Administration: A Note on the State of the Union

1952 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 660-676 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roscoe C. Martin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Science ◽  
Public Administration ◽  
Russell Sage Foundation ◽  
Special Study ◽  
Woodrow Wilson ◽  
State Of The Union ◽  
The Social ◽  
Original Essay ◽  
The Subject

By tradition public administration is regarded as a division of political science. Woodrow Wilson set the stage for this concept in his original essay identifying public administration as a subject worthy of special study, and spokesmen for both political science and public administration have accepted it since. Thus Leonard White, in his 1930 article on the subject in the Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, recognizes public administration as “a branch of the field of political science.” Luther Gulick follows suit, observing in 1937 that “Public administration is thus a division of political science ….” So generally has this word got around that it has come to the notice of the sociologists, as is indicated in a 1950 report of the Russell Sage Foundation which refers to “political science, including public administration….” “Pure” political scientists and political scientists with a public administration slant therefore are not alone in accepting this doctrine, which obviously enjoys a wide and authoritative currency.But if public administration is reckoned generally to be a child of political science, it is in some respects a strange and unnatural child; for there is a feeling among political scientists, substantial still if mayhap not so widespread as formerly, that academicians who profess public administration spend their time fooling with trifles. It was a sad day when the first professor of political science learned what a manhole cover is! On their part, those who work in public administration are likely to find themselves vaguely resentful of the lack of cordiality in the house of their youth.

Conversation and Culture

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simeon Floyd
Keyword(s):  
Conversation Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Sequential Analysis ◽  
Contemporary Literature ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽  
Language Studies ◽  
Speech Communities

Conversation analysis is a method for the systematic study of interaction in terms of a sequential turn-taking system. Research in conversation analysis has traditionally focused on speakers of English, and it is still unclear to what extent the system observed in that research applies to conversation more generally around the world. However, as this method is now being applied to conversation in a broader range of languages, it is increasingly possible to address questions about the nature of interactional diversity across different speech communities. The approach of pragmatic typology first applies sequential analysis to conversation from different speech communities and then compares interactional patterns in ways analogous to how traditional linguistic typology compares morphosyntax. This article discusses contemporary literature in pragmatic typology, including single-language studies and multilanguage comparisons reflecting both qualitative and quantitative methods. This research finds that microanalysis of face-to-face interaction can identify both universal trends and culture-specific interactional tendencies. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Anthropology, Volume 50 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Ethnography, Data Transparency, and the Information Age

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandra K. Murphy ◽  
Colin Jerolmack ◽  
DeAnna Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Information Age ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
The Social ◽  
Share Data ◽  
Replication Crisis ◽  
Data Transparency

The conventions ethnographers follow to gather, write about, and store their data are increasingly out of sync with contemporary research expectations and social life. Despite technological advancements that allow ethnographers to observe their subjects digitally and record interactions, few follow subjects online and many still reconstruct quotes from memory. Amid calls for data transparency, ethnographers continue to conceal subjects’ identities and keep fieldnotes private. But things are changing. We review debates, dilemmas, and innovations in ethnography that have arisen over the past two decades in response to new technologies and calls for transparency. We focus on emerging conversations around how ethnographers record, collect, anonymize, verify, and share data. Considering the replication crisis in the social sciences, we ask how ethnographers can enable others to reanalyze their findings. We address ethical implications and offer suggestions for how ethnographers can develop standards for transparency that are consistent with their commitment to their subjects and interpretive scholarship. 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.

Social Epidemiology: Past, Present, and Future

2022 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana V. Diez Roux
Keyword(s):  
Social Epidemiology ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Social Production ◽  
Systemic Racism ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Approaches ◽  
Social Causes

In a context where epidemiologic research has been heavily influenced by a biomedical and individualistic approach, the naming of “social epidemiology” allowed explicit emphasis on the social production of disease as a powerful explanatory paradigm and as critically important for interventions to improve population health. This review briefly highlights key substantive areas of focus in social epidemiology over the past 30 years, reflects on major advances and insights, and identifies challenges and possible future directions. Future opportunities for social epidemiology include grounding research in theoretically based and systemic conceptual models of the fundamental social drivers of health; implementing a scientifically rigorous yet realistic approach to drawing conclusions about social causes; using complementary methods to generate valid explanations and identify effective actions; leveraging the power of harmonization, replication, and big data; extending interdisciplinarity and diversity; advancing emerging critical approaches to understanding the health impacts of systemic racism and its policy implications; going global; and embracing a broad approach to generating socially useful research. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 43 is April 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

The Political Economy of Attention

2021 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Axel Pedersen ◽  
Kristoffer Albris ◽  
Nick Seaver
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Online Publication ◽  
The Political ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Moral Concern ◽  
Digital Platforms ◽  
Political Economic

Attention has become an issue of intense political, economic, and moral concern over recent years: from the commodification of attention by digital platforms to the alleged loss of the attentional capacities of screen-addicted children (and their parents). While attention has rarely been an explicit focus of anthropological inquiry, it has still played an important if mostly tacit part in many anthropological debates and subfields. Focusing on anthropological scholarship on digital worlds and ritual forms, we review resources for colleagues interested in this burgeoning topic of research and identify potential avenues for an incipient anthropology of attention, which studies how attentional technologies and techniques mold human minds and bodies in more or less intentional ways. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Anthropology, Volume 50 is October 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document