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 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.

scholarly journals Social Inequality and the Future of US Life Expectancy

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Iliya Gutin ◽  
Robert A. Hummer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Life Expectancy ◽  
Social Inequality ◽  
Population Health ◽  
The United States ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Extreme Longevity

Despite decades of progress, the future of life expectancy in the United States is uncertain due to widening socioeconomic disparities in mortality, continued disparities in mortality across racial/ethnic groups, and an increase in extrinsic causes of death. These trends prompt us to scrutinize life expectancy in a high-income but enormously unequal society like the United States, where social factors determine who is most able to maximize their biological lifespan. After reviewing evidence for biodemographic perspectives on life expectancy, the uneven diffusion of health-enhancing innovations throughout the population, and the changing nature of threats to population health, we argue that sociology is optimally positioned to lead discourse on the future of life expectancy. Given recent trends, sociologists should emphasize the importance of the social determinants of life expectancy, redirecting research focus away from extending extreme longevity and toward research on social inequality with the goal of improving population health for all. 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 A Critical Review of the Social and Behavioral Contributions to the Overdose Epidemic

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magdalena Cerdá ◽  
Noa Krawczyk ◽  
Leah Hamilton ◽  
Kara E. Rudolph ◽  
Samuel R. Friedman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Problem ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Contexts ◽  
Prescription Opioid ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
Opioid Overdose ◽  
The Social ◽  
Critical Public Health

More than 750,000 people in the United States died from an overdose between 1999 and 2018; two-thirds of those deaths involved an opioid. In this review, we present trends in opioid overdose rates during this period and discuss how the proliferation of opioid prescribing to treat chronic pain, changes in the heroin and illegally manufactured opioid synthetics markets, and social factors, including deindustrialization and concentrated poverty, contributed to the rise of the overdose epidemic. We also examine how current policies implemented to address the overdose epidemic may have contributed to reducing prescription opioid overdoses but increased overdoses involving illegal opioids. Finally, we identify new directions for research to understand the causes and solutions to this critical public health problem, including research on heterogeneous policy effects across social groups, effective approaches to reduce overdoses of illegal opioids, and the role of social contexts in shaping policy implementation and impact. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 42 is April 1, 2021. 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.

Populism and the yearning for closure: From economic to cultural fragility

2019 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 477-492
Author(s):  
Sibylle van der Walt
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social World ◽  
Western World ◽  
Far Right ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cultural Transformations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Western Democracies

Since the Brexit-vote and the election of a far-right businessman as President of the United States, the social sciences have been struggling to explain the societal conditions that nourish the increasing appeal of far-right parties and leaders in the Western world. The article’s main thesis is that the currently leading sociological paradigm, the theory of globalization losers, is not sufficient to understand the social dynamics in question. Starting from a discussion of the recent work of German sociologist Wilhelm Heitmeyer, it is argued that the best insight in far-right voter’s motivations and emotions can be found in the work of Margaret Canovan. The article shows further that a sociological investigation into the socio-psychological dynamics of the rise of the far-right should take into account broader cultural transformations that have been weakening the social world of Western democracies in the past 30 years, namely individualization, acceleration and demographic decline. In times of crisis (the ‘modernization’ of Eastern Europe and the financial crisis of 2007), these transformations become manifest as a general crisis of advanced capitalism.

The “Historical Turn” in the Social Sciences

2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-312 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herbert S. Klein
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
United States ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
The United States ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Past ◽  
Professional Societies ◽  
Historical Turn ◽  
The Social

The first professional societies in the United States, from the 1880s to the 1910s, understood history to be closely associated with the other social sciences. Even in the mid-twentieth century, history was still grouped with the other social sciences, along with economics, sociology, political science, and anthropology. But in the past few decades, history and anthropology in the United States (though not necessarily in other countries) have moved away from the social sciences to ally themselves with the humanities—paradoxically, just when the other social sciences are becoming more committed to historical research.

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.

Clausewitz: A Bibliographical Survey

1965 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Paret
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
United States ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Other ◽  
Partial Loss ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Bibliographical Survey

The vitality of the social sciences in the United States has not prevented some of its most influential pioneers from becoming unread classics. A widespread preference for textbook treatment and up-to-theminute analysis plays its part; but if the reader does want to turn to the originals, he often finds that they are not readily available. Complete and scholarly editions of writers who pursued new directions of inquiry are rarer than might be supposed—even in their native language. The situation is particularly bad when it comes to foreign authors. A writer's theories and insights may be transmitted through one or two major works, while the rest of his output is ignored, so that his thoughts are analyzed in isolation, without benefit of the preliminary sketches, correspondence, and marginal studies that would give depth and suppleness to the interpretation. Until recently Rousseau and Tocqueville have been in this position; another case in point is Max Weber, ignorance of whose fertile theorizing has misled more than one commentator. Still another, and extreme, example of intellectual discontinuity is provided by Clausewitz. Much of his work has never been published; even in German most of it is out of print; little of it has ever been translated. The result has been the partial loss of a remarkable historical and theoretical achievement. To the American reader, in particular, Clausewitz rarely means more than the “philosopher of war,” a famous name associated with one or two clichés backed up by little of substance. Repeated attempts to outline Clausewitz's thought, or to present the “essential Clausewitz” in the form of excerpts, have never been of more than doubtful value, if only because his methodology and dialectic are scarcely less interesting than the conclusions they reach. It would be pointless to attempt the impossible once again. On the other hand, a brief survey of Clausewitz's writings and of the literature concerning him may provide a useful introduction to his theories and to the manner in which for the past 150 years they have influenced the study and the waging of war.

scholarly journals More journal articles and fewer books: publication practices in the social sciences in the 2010’s

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. Savage ◽  
Anthony J. Olejniczak
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Journal Article ◽  
Publication Output ◽  
The United States ◽  
Early Career ◽  
Academic Disciplines ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Publication Practices

Over the past few years, the rate of journal article publication has increased in most academic disciplines - in some cases more than doubling in the past decade. While journal articles are the de facto currency of knowledge production in many science disciplines, social science scholars routinely publish books as well as journal articles. The social sciences have also undergone a rapid transformation towards more quantitative methodologies, thus representing a unique opportunity to study the increased rate of journal article publication in an area where books are also an important mode of dissemination. We studied the publishing activity of social sciences faculty members in 12 disciplines at 290 Ph.D. granting institutions in the United States between 2011 and 2019. In all disciplines, journal articles per person increased between 2011 and 2019 by between 3% and 64%, while books per person decreased by at least 31% and as much as 54%. Overall, early career researchers show the largest increase in rates of journal article production, while senior scholars show the greatest increase in participation in journal article production. Younger scholars appear to have greater publication output, while growing numbers of older scholars turn towards journal articles as a means of disseminating their work in the social sciences. We observe growing uniformity in the disciplinary literatures of the social sciences, which increasingly resemble the physical and biological sciences in terms of publication practices.

AAA Committed to Greater Role for Anthropology in Public Policy

1979 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 9-30
Author(s):  
Louis Cimino ◽  
Don Zies
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
The United States ◽  
Social Programs ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Policy Making Process ◽  
Active Interest ◽  
Basic And Applied Research

An indisputable characteristic of the development of the social sciences over the past two decades has been the growing federal involvement in many aspects of research and application. Whether we measure by the proportion of federal funding for basic and applied research, or by regulation of the research enterprise, or by development of substantive social programs, the, federal government has emerged as a (if not the) major patron of social science in the United States. In response, social scientists have begun to take an active interest in federal decision-making, and many new opportunities are emerging for social science input into the policy-making process.

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