The role of the social scientist in the processes of policy-making

1968 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. 159-175
Author(s):  
Klaus Lompe
Author(s):  
Richard Swedberg

This chapter examines the role of imagination and the arts in helping social scientists to theorize well. However deep one's basic knowledge of social theory is, and however many concepts, mechanisms, and theories one knows, unless this knowledge is used in an imaginative way, the result will be dull and noncreative. A good research topic should among other things operate as an analogon—that is, it should be able to set off the theoretical imagination of the social scientist. Then, when a social scientist writes, he or she may want to write in such a way that the reader's theoretical imagination is stirred. Besides imagination, the chapter also discusses the relationship of social theory to art. There are a number of reason for this, including the fact that in modern society, art is perceived as the height of imagination and creativity.


1979 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 269-272
Author(s):  
Katherine Van Wormer

Sociologists have been involved in various aspects of the criminal justice system. The author examines the role of the sociologist in jury selection. Using as a background her involvement in a recent trial, she discusses the basic strategies involved in selecting a jury.


1950 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Omer Stewart

The role of the social scientist in the Point IV Program was discussed at a meeting sponsored jointly by the Society for Applied Anthropology and the American Sociological Society, during the Annual Conference of the Sociological Society in Denver, September 8, 1950. Chairman of the meeting was Carl C. Taylor, Head, Division of Farm Population and Rural Life, Bureau of Agricultural Economics, U.S. Department of Agriculture.


1977 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 241-252 ◽  
Author(s):  
Phillip C. Schlechty ◽  
James L. Morrison

BMJ ◽  
1958 ◽  
Vol 2 (5108) ◽  
pp. 1339-1339
Author(s):  
T. McKeown
Keyword(s):  

1980 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-63
Author(s):  
Peter Benedict

In an AID conferences paper prepared over three years ago ("Social Analysts & Analysis in the Near East Bureau"), there were eventual limits to the successful institutionalization of a social science concern within AID. Since that date, a number of changes affecting the way in which the Agency conducts its business have, I believe, posed new challenges to a relatively nascent social science enterprise. Many changes are a result of external pressures of fiscal austerity which have led to the attrition of needed technical personnel as well as increased difficulties in recruiting qualified talent to maintain an in-house" development capability. Other changes relate to the embeddedness of the foreign aid program within official political foreign policy, a relationship in which one can readily see the primacy of achieving the objectives of promoting short term economic and political stability. This hitter presents an intellectual challenge to the systematic process of analyzing societal change and in designing well-targeted interventions to affect the welfare of the poor. The former poses a familiar problem of how to do more with less—a process which is changing the role of the social scientist from analyst to that of a broker soliciting external skills.


1981 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 453-475 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Whiteley

ABSTRACTThis article discusses the role of public opinion in the social policy making process. It argues that existing accounts of social policy formation are inadequate in their treatment of public opinion, and inconsistent in their estimation of its importance. It then goes on to examine detailed examples of the role of public opinion in policy making; and finally tests two hypotheses concerning the sources of the demand for social welfare spending on the part of the British electorate.


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