scholarly journals Comment on “On History and Policy: Time in the Age of Neoliberalism”

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-40
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Streeck
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Institutional Change ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Systematic Theory ◽  
The World ◽  
Development And Evolution

It is not only economics that needs to regain a sense of history but also much of social science. Like economists social scientists need to liberate themselves from a Newtonian clockwork view of the world, and from a view of social reality as an emanation and arbitrary illustration of universal laws governing social life in general. Social science needs a renewed awareness of its origins in a systematic theory of historical social development and evolution, of endogenous social dynamics, and of directionality of social and institutional change, especially in contemporary capitalism, free from historical teleology and economic determinism.

The Second Royal Society Nuffield Lecture Anthropological models and social reality

1966 ◽  
Vol 165 (998) ◽  
pp. 20-34 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Academic Discipline ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Anthropology ◽  
Know How ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
History Of ◽  
Human Social Life

In trying to show you the character of social anthropology as an academic discipline, I might try to sketch some substantive and perhaps intriguing findings in the field, or the history of its development, or some of its major intellectual problems today. I have chosen the last of these alternatives, because by showing the general problems we are grappling with I hope to reveal to you, in part no doubt inadvertently, the ways that anthropologists think, and also how our difficulties in part arise from the character of the social reality itself, which we confront and try to understand. The fundamental questions which social anthropology asks are about the forms, the nature, and the extent of order in human social life, as it can be observed in the different parts of the world. There is no need to prejudge the extent of this order; as members of one society we know how unpredictable social life can be. But concretely, human life varies greatly around the world, and it seems possible to characterize its forms to some extent. We seek means systematically to discover, record and understand these forms.

scholarly journals Contextualizing Social Science in Nepal

1970 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 1-30
Author(s):  
Dev Raj Dahal
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Scientific Reasoning ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Linear Structure ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Practical Experience ◽  
Contextual Knowledge ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The One

Social science informs about the ideals and trains experts to deal with the complex social realities. It has a public purpose rooted in what we call dharma (professional and institutional responsibility) as opposed to the arrogance of reason, self-will and self-rationalization intrinsic to contemporary rational choice and modernity. Learning has a synergy - establishing connection between the world of social science theories and the drama of social life. A lack of mutual learning between Nepal's traditional faith intellectuals and modern reason-based social scientists has created a big hiatus and contradiction. The academic life of social scientists in Nepal is completely outside of spiritual, moral and ethical influence experienced by ordinary public. The spiritual blindness of modern social scientists has thus opened multiple gaps between their worldview and those of the citizens on various frontiers--theoretical knowledge and practical experience, technical understanding and composite knowledge and secularity of social science and the vitality of the Hindu-Buddhist scriptures in the popular mind, culture, behavior and practices. This has reinforced a division between the system of knowledge of social scientists and the life-world of people. The proponents of new social movements in Nepal, such as women, Dalits, Janajatis, Madhesis, youths and marginalized population are seeking a structural shift in reason-based knowledge to both reason and feeling in social science knowledge discovery. This movement can open the "captive mind" to social learning of contextual knowledge, conduct research with the citizens, provide inputs to the policy makers and reverse their linear, structure-bound, rationalist and disciplinary thinking into the one that represents what the Nepal mandala, the Nepali space, is really like and how to improve it for the better. The renewal and indigenization of qualitative social science research is important to overcome the spirited challenges posed by social forces in Nepal and contribute to the application of scientific reasoning in public policy and social change.Key Words: social movement, NepalDOI = 10.3126/dsaj.v2i0.1356Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol.2 pp.1-30

Reconsidering Race

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henry Louis Gates, Jr
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Socially Constructed ◽  
The Social ◽  
Age Of Discovery ◽  
The Way

Race is one of the most elusive phenomena of social life. While we generally know it when we see it, it's not an easy concept to define. Social science literature has argued that race is a Western, sociopolitical concept that emerged with the birth of modern imperialism, whether in the sixteenth century (the Age of Discovery) or the eighteenth century (the Age of Enlightenment). This book points out that there is a disjuncture between the way race is conceptualized in the social science and medical literature: some of the modern sciences employ racial and ethnic categories. As such, race has a physical, as opposed to a purely social, dimension. The book argues that in order to more fully understand what we mean by race, social scientists need to engage genetics, medicine, and health. To be sure, the long shadow of eugenics and the Nazi use of scientific racism have cast a pall over the effort to understand this complicated relationship between social science and race. But while the text rejects pseudoscience and hierarchical ways of looking at race, it makes the claim that it is time to reassess the Western-based, social construction paradigm. The chapters in this book consider three fundamental tensions in thinking about race: one between theories that see race as fixed or malleable; a second between the idea that race is a universal but modern Western concept and the idea that it has a deeper and more complicated cultural history; and a third between sociopolitical and biological/biomedical concepts of race. Arguing that race is not merely socially constructed, the chapters offer a collection of views on the way that social scientists must reconsider the idea of race in the age of genomics.

“Soft” Area Studies versus “Hard” Social Science: A False Opposition

Slavic Review ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Loren Graham ◽  
Jean-Michel Kantor
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Set Theory ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Relativity Theory ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Area Studies ◽  
Quantitative Approaches

Much criticism of area studies has come from social scientists, some of whom consider area studies to be “soft,” emphasizing description and culture, while social science is “hard,” emphasizing mathematics, rigor, and replicability. Loren Graham, an area studies specialist, and Jean-Michel Kantor, a mathematician, maintain that this contrast is simplistic and undervalues area studies. They show that an area studies approach can help understand, not only society, but mathematics and quantitative approaches themselves. They use an area studies approach to help explain developments in set theory and relativity theory and call for a resurgence of area studies, for both intellectual and political reasons. At the same time, they do not undervalue social science, and celebrate its achievements. As they argue, a sophisticated understanding of social reality will require multiple approaches, including both social science and area studies.

A Sociology of the Unmarked: Redirecting Our Focus

1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wayne Brekhus
Keyword(s):  
Common Sense ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
American Sociology ◽  
Vantage Points ◽  
General Culture

This article suggests that American sociology has developed a de facto tradition in the sociology of the marked that devotes greater epistemological attention to “politically salient” and “ontologically uncommon” features of social life. Although the “unmarked” comprises the vast majority of social life, the “marked” commands a disproportionate share of attention from sociologists. Since the marked already draws more attention within the general culture, social scientists contribute to re-marking and the reproduction of common-sense images of social reality. This has important analytic consequences. This article argues for developing a stronger tradition in a sociology of the unmarked that explicitly foregrounds “politically unnoticed” and taken-for-granted elements of social reality. Three strategies are proposed toward this end: (1) reversing conventional patterns of markedness to foreground what typically remains unnamed and implicit, (2) marking everything by filling in all the shades of social continua so that each shares the same degree of epistemological ornamentation, and (3) developing an analytically nomadic perspective that observes social phenomena from multiple vantage points.

Sociologists everywhere: Country representation in conferences hosted by the International Sociological Association, 1990–2012

2015 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 466-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Kjerulf Dubrow ◽  
Marta Kołczyńska ◽  
Kazimierz M Slomczynski ◽  
Irina Tomescu-Dubrow
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Social Science Research ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Science System ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
International Sociological Association ◽  
National Representation ◽  
The World ◽  
International Social

Professional events that feature face-to-face interaction of social scientists from across the world are, next to publications and research, important forms of scientific knowledge production and dissemination. Thus, they are vital to the World Science System (WSS). Like other WSS elements, scholarly involvement in international social science events is characterized by unequal cross-national representation. This article focuses in-depth on the International Sociological Association (ISA), a major international social science professional association, to examine inequality in attendance at its flagship conferences. To what extent do countries differ with respect to the number of scholars attending ISA conferences? What factors drive attendance? The authors base their hypotheses on the economic, political and social dimensions that influence country representation. To test these hypotheses the authors use a dataset containing information on 212 countries and their participation in the eight ISA conferences – World Congresses and Forums – held from 1990 to 2012. Results show that a country’s GDP, level of democracy and social science research infrastructure (SSRI) substantially determine their level of representation. SSRI effects are significant above and beyond the effect of GDP and of other controls. Findings also show a meaningful over-time decrease in representation inequality according to countries’ GDP.

scholarly journals Social development in the philosophy of global constitutionalism

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (Extra-A) ◽  
pp. 402-410
Author(s):  
Vitaly Viktorovich Goncharov ◽  
Sergey A. Balashenko ◽  
Artem A. Pukhov ◽  
Tatiana N. Mikhaleva ◽  
Grigory A. Vasilevich ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Financial Economic ◽  
Capitalist System ◽  
Philosophical Concept ◽  
Social Concept ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Constitutionalism

The fundamental laws of social development are investigated in the interpretation of the concept of global constitutionalism.  The author concludes that social development within the framework of the philosophy of global constitutionalism is entirely subordinate to the logic of the preservation and development of the world capitalist system, which allows to preserve power and property in the hands of global governing elites in the person of the global governing class. Research objective: to analyze social development in the interpretation of the socio-philosophical concept of global constitutionalism, to constitute its fundamental laws.  Object of research: the phenomenon of globalization of socio-political, state-legal and financial-economic development of national societies and states as a phenomenon of social reality, highlighted in the social concept of global constitutionalism.  Subject of research: theoretical content of social development in the interpretation of the philosophy of global constitutionalism in relation to its social essence.

scholarly journals PERSPEKTIF COULSON TERHADAP RUMUSAN DIALEKTIKA HUKUM ISLAM

Al-Ahkam ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 121
Author(s):  
Akhwan Fanani
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Historical Development ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Islamic Law ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Social Reality ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Social Facts ◽  
History Of

<p class="IABSSS">Law will always evolve and dialectic with social dynamics. Coulson see that the dynamics of the Islamic law occurs through the efforts of reinterpretation of Islamic sources when there is a gap between theory and practice. With a historical approach, Coulson mapped the development of Islamic law so that he made six dialectic formulation of Islamic law which is an in-depth reading in seeing the historical development of Islamic law. According to Coulson, Islamic law is idealistic and away from social reality. Islamic law is determined by social facts and reduced as a man-made law. Coulson’s propositions departed from empirical studies of the historical development of Islamic law. Coulson formulas can be used to understand further the reality of the development of Islamic law, so Muslims can understand what really happened in the history of Islamic law and scientific perspective. It can be used to perform introspection for Muslims to develop further the Islamic legal thought and in accordance with the existing social development. This paper intends to review critically the ideas of Coulson.</p><p class="IABSSS">***</p><p class="IABSSS">Hukum akan selalu berkembang dan berdialektika dengan dinamika sosialnya. Coulson melihat bahwa dinamika hukum Islam terjadi melalui upaya penafsiran kembali sumber-sumber Islam ketika ada kesenjangan antara teori dengan praktek. Dengan pendekatan historis Coulson memetakan perkembangan hukum Islam sehingga ia membuat enam rumusan dialektika hukum Islam yang merupakan sebuah pembacaan yang mendalam dalam melihat sejarah perkembangan hukum Islam. Menurut Coulson hukum Islam bersifat idealistik dan jauh dari realitas sosial dan apa yang ia inginkan adalah hukum Islam ditentukan oleh fakta-fakta sosial dan direduksi sebagai hukum buatan manusia. Proposisi-proposisi Coulson berangkat dari penelitian empiris mengenai sejarah perkembangan hukum Islam. Rumusan-rumusan Coulson dapat digunakan untuk lebih memahami realitas perkembangan hukum Islam, sehingga umat Islam bisa memahami apa yang sebenarnya terjadi dalam sejarah perkembangan hukum Islam dan perspektif keilmuan. Hal itu bisa dipergunakan untuk melakukan introspeksi bagi umat Islam untuk mengembangkan pemikiran hukum Islam lebih lanjut dan sesuai dengan perkembangan sosial yang ada. Artikel ini bermaksud untuk mereview secara kritis pemikiran Coulson tersebut. </p><p class="IABSSS">***</p><div class="WordSection1"><p class="IAKEY" align="left">Keywords: dialektika, Hukum Islam, <em>conflict</em><em> and tension</em>, <em>ijtihād</em></p></div>

Varieties of Instability: a Theoretical and Methodological Critique

1979 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 703-709
Author(s):  
A. Rashid Moten
Keyword(s):  
Social Development ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Causal Model ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The World ◽  
Methodological Difficulties

It is reasonable to assume that violence is a common recurring condition in all parts of the world, during all periods of history, and at all stages of social development. Yet there is not a single, compelling theory that specifies, even crudely, a comprehensive causal model of political violence.1 The reason, as C. N. Cnudde points out, is ‘that the processes which bring about change in a unit as vast as a nation are much more complex than any single theory predicts’.2 This complexity of the process has not, however, hindered the growth of scholarly literature. On the contrary, social scientists, despite certain theoretical and methodological difficulties, have subjected this relatively uncharted area to further exploration.

From globalization to post-globalization: enclaves of augmented modernity and prospects of social development

2019 ◽  
pp. 12-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dmitry V. Ivanov
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Urban Areas ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Standard Of Living ◽  
The Core ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Divide

The article presents an attempt to reconceptualize social development and to measure its level for societies facing the post-globalization as globalizing networks and flows paradoxically are localized in super-urban areas. The economic and social divide between the group of the largest cities and the rest of the world supports the idea that globalization has resulted not in the ‘world society’ or ‘worldwide sociality’ but rather in networked enclaves of globality where people experience borderless, multicultural, and mobile social life in the regime of augmented modernity. In the post-globalization age, the ‘core’ of socioeconomic order is dispersed into networks of enclaves of augmented modernity contrasting with exhausted modernity outside them. The nations’ prospects of social development depend on number, size, and influence of cosmopolitan super-urban areas attracting and generating transnational material, human, and symbolic flows. The super-urbanization index is elaborated to measure nations’ prospects under post-globalization conditions. Traditional indices of standard of living and quality of life have to be augmented in the new theoretical model and system of empirical indicators of social development under post-globalization conditions.

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