scholarly journals Devices for illuminating defended subjectivities in complex qualitative case interpretation: An example from recent BNIM practice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Flynn ◽  
Tom Wengraf
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Research Proposal ◽  
Audit Trail ◽  
Psychosocial Studies ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Anglophone World

For a long time now, fairly central to what has emerged as ‘psychosocial studies’ has been the notion of psychosocietal ‘defendedness’. This is the psychoanalytic notion that people (not excluding social science researchers) must be understood in general as being ‘defended subjectivities’. This immediately raises the question of the ‘defended researcher’ being sensitive to – and having procedures for detecting and interpreting the working of – such ‘defensiveness’ in the interactions of their subjects and themselves. Biography-based research raises these issues particularly strongly. One such method, known as the ‘biographical narrative interpretative method’ (BNIM) of interviewing and case interpretation, has been used in the anglophone world for more than 20 years. While BNIM prescribes an audit trail for its interpretative practices, it is rare to discover a fully audited sequence of components, and rarer still to have access to illuminating free-associative fieldnotes that catalogue the researcher’s evolving subjectivity. This article discusses defendedness in a case interpretation within a BNIM-using PhD. We conclude that, to defeat the defensiveness of both researcher and peer-auditor (the co-authors of this article), several BNIM techniques need to be used systematically and that, in particular, a ‘private and confidential’ independent peer audit is valuable under certain conditions, and should be provided for in any research proposal. Through peer audit, the researcher can be (usually uncomfortably) sensitised to new possibilities about their otherwise inadequately understood defended processes and conclusions.

Archaeology and the Aztec Economy: The Social Scientific Use of Archaeological Data

1987 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 237-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael E. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Material Culture ◽  
Material Objects ◽  
Economic Systems ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Ancient Technology ◽  
Archaeological Data ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Major Social Science

Recent theoretical and methodological developments within anthropological archaeology have transformed the discipline in such a way that archaeology is now beginning to make contributions to a number of areas of social science. Two of the more significant of these areas are the question of socioeconomic change over long time spans and the study of past economic systems. The former contribution arises out of the stratigraphie character of the archaeological record and the development of increasingly accurate methods of measuring past time. Archaeological studies typically deal with change over periods of time equivalent to or even longer than Braudel’s (1980)“longue durée”(e.g., Sanders, Parsons, and Santley, 1979; Blanton et al., 1981), and many archaeologists see this diachronic social perspective as the primary contribution of archaeology to social science knowledge (Plog, 1973). The second major contribution of archaeology—the study of past economic systems—is made possible by archaeologists’ reliance upon material culture. Beyond the obvious link between material objects and the study of ancient technology, material culture can be quite revealing about many types of economic activities as well as other sociocultural phenomena (e.g., Gould and Schiffer, 1981). This focus on material objects is so crucial to archaeologists that some have suggested that the major social science contribution of the field is its concern with the relationship between behavior and material culture in modern as well as ancient societies (e.g., Rathje and Schiffer, 1982; Rathje, 1979).

scholarly journals Reflections and Review on the Audit Procedure

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 160940691876321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renske de Kleijn ◽  
Anouschka Van Leeuwen
Keyword(s):  
Quality Assurance ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Science Studies ◽  
Position Paper ◽  
Qualitative Studies ◽  
Audit Trail ◽  
Quantitative Studies ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Methodological Position

Arguably, quality assurance is more complicated in qualitative studies than in quantitative studies. Several procedures for quality assurance are available, among which the audit procedure as proposed by Akkerman, Admiraal, Brekelmans, and Oost. In this article, we reflect on this procedure based on our own experiences as well as based on a review of studies in which the audit procedure was employed. More specifically, we discuss (1) the choice for an auditor and the relationship between auditee and auditor and (2) the function of the audit. We propose that future auditees (a) explicitly report on the auditee–auditor relationship, (b) explicitly report on the function of their audit, and (c) have their audit trail documents available for review. With this methodological position paper, we aim to contribute to the current call to make social science studies and their conclusions more transparent and thereby to enhance the quality of qualitative studies.

Social Science and Organized Health Services

1959 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 75-77
Author(s):  
Milton Roemer
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Public Health ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Formally Trained ◽  
Health Administrators ◽  
Health Field ◽  
Applied Social Sciences

The entry of social science into the health field is exciting news—at least to those who for a long time have been preaching that medicine and public health are really applied social sciences, because their goal is to apply scientific techniques to the welfare of people. Henry Sigerist, Michael Davis, C-E. A. Winslow, René Sand, Andrija Stampar, Jacques Parisot, James Mackintosh have been saying this in the languages of their respective countries since at least 1920; Alfred Grotjohn, Arthur Newsholme, Max Pettenkofer, Richard Cabot, and others before them. But these men were physicians or health administrators and not formally trained social scientists. Moreover, the sad truth is that most of their medical colleagues paid little attention to them.

scholarly journals COP21 Management: How to Link up International Governance with National Policy-implementation

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 92
Author(s):  
Jan-Erik Lane
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
National Policy ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Time Span ◽  
Management Approach ◽  
International Governance ◽  
Social Science Theory ◽  
Science Theory ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Global Project

It seems scientifically legitimate to move beyond the natural sciences' perspective upon he COP21 project. Can really social science theory be mustered to manage this global project for such a long time span? Or is it all make belief, decarbonisation writ large a figment of imagination? The natural sciences can deliver predictions about emissions and temperature as well as their interconnections. But only economics and social science have knowledge that is relevant to the implementation of the three goals of decarbonisation, subject to the requirement of economic growth. Neither implementation theory nor the management approach would render COP21 much chance of success. To understand COP21 management, one must analyse the country situations with regard to GDP-GHG(CO2) links as well as the mix of energy sources in each country.

scholarly journals Contextual Anonymization for Secondary Use of Big Data in Biomedical Research: Proposal for an Anonymization Matrix (Preprint)

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Rumbold ◽  
Barbara Pierscionek
Keyword(s):  
Big Data ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Biomedical Research ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Research Proposal ◽  
Secondary Use ◽  
Public Expectations ◽  
Law And Ethics ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
Context Specific

BACKGROUND The current law on anonymization sets the same standard across all situations, which poses a problem for biomedical research. OBJECTIVE We propose a matrix for setting different standards, which is responsive to context and public expectations. METHODS The law and ethics applicable to anonymization were reviewed in a scoping study. Social science on public attitudes and research on technical methods of anonymization were applied to formulate a matrix. RESULTS The matrix adjusts anonymization standards according to the sensitivity of the data and the safety of the place, people, and projects involved. CONCLUSIONS The matrix offers a tool with context-specific standards for anonymization in data research.

scholarly journals Foreword to the special issue of EJAM on crime modelling

2010 ◽  
Vol 21 (4-5) ◽  
pp. 271-274 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. BERESTYCKI ◽  
S. D. JOHNSON ◽  
R. OCKENDON ◽  
M. PRIMICERIO
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Complex Systems ◽  
Applied Mathematics ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The Social ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Shed Light

This special issue is one of the very first dedicated to crime modelling in a journal of applied mathematics. It emphasizes one of the new areas at the Social Science frontier, where modelling and mathematical tools are put to use with a view to shed light on phenomena previously thought to be outside of their reach. Pioneering research is increasingly being carried out in many different areas in the life sciences or social sciences, often under the heading of the study of complex systems. When addressing issues regarding society, individuals or the collective behaviours of humans, several questions naturally arise about the modelling enterprise. What is the nature and role of modelling in social sciences? What is one to expect from these new approaches? The case of economics, which has relied on mathematics for a very long time now, can serve as a paradigm for what is happening in other social sciences.

The Shock of the “‘New’ (Histories)”

2001 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 483-533
Author(s):  
Harvey J. Graff
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Science History ◽  
Social Science History ◽  
Conference Theme ◽  
The Social ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Science Departments

At this meeting, we celebrate 25 years of the Social Science History Association, the SSHA.With appreciation from all of us, I acknowledge the achievements of our founders and our long-time members. We stand on their shoulders metaphorically and historically. We mark this anniversary with a plenary president's “founder’s session,” a variety of retrospective and prospective panels, and the conference theme “looking backward and looking forward.” We also commemorate more than 25 years of groundbreaking research and recognition of the presence and practice of social science historians along the hallowed halls of history and social science departments—even if it has not always been accompanied by a readywelcome orcomplete acceptance. (We mark no fewer years of controversy.)

scholarly journals Policy analysis in uncertain and ambiguous context: Agenda for methodological pluralism

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 184-209
Author(s):  
Georg Sootla ◽  
◽  
Vladimir A. Gutorov ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Policy Analysis ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Policy Advice ◽  
Western Science ◽  
Methodological Pluralism ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Policy Arena ◽  
Policy Solutions ◽  
The Continuum

In this article we demonstrate why and how in the Western science of policymaking a challenge posited by empirical behaviouralism aimed at reforming the over-politicised plicy process along the analytical-rational lines in 1950s did not succeeded. However, it produced a meaningful shift in understanding the policy process and it formed by the 1970s a completely new conceptual context and discourse on the policy process. As a result, by the new millennium the positivist and constructivists perspectives, that are located at the opposite ends of the continuum of methodological presumptions, started to complement each other and even to intermingle at the level of providing practical policy solutions. In the first part we analyse how the cognitive limits and uncertainty of the context forces to re-focus policy analysis from substantive issues to the policy arena design, and to work out conceptions of interactive policymaking. Simultaneously several concepts of constructivist social science (frames, learning, narratives) were applied and adapted in the positivist perspective. We demonstrate why constructivist-interpretivist policy analysis could not for a long time get to the forefront of practical policy analysis. We demonstrate how the application of the pragmatist approach made it possible to develop the conception of design rationality. Overall, we explore the framework in which different methodologies would complement each other in providing policy advice and analysis from different practical angles.

200kv superconducting cryo electron microscope

1987 ◽  
Vol 45 ◽  
pp. 642-643
Author(s):  
M. Iwatsuki ◽  
Y. Kokubo ◽  
Y. Harada ◽  
J. Lehman
Keyword(s):  
Electron Microscope ◽  
Structure Analysis ◽  
Organic Materials ◽  
Strong Interactions ◽  
Specimen Preparation ◽  
Great Effort ◽  
Electron Microscopic ◽  
Crystal Fields ◽  
Special Skill ◽  
Long Time

In recent years, the electron microscope has been significantly improved in resolution and we can obtain routinely atomic-level high resolution images without any special skill. With this improvement, the structure analysis of organic materials has become one of the interesting targets in the biological and polymer crystal fields.Up to now, X-ray structure analysis has been mainly used for such materials. With this method, however, great effort and a long time are required for specimen preparation because of the need for larger crystals. This method can analyze average crystal structure but is insufficient for interpreting it on the atomic or molecular level. The electron microscopic method for organic materials has not only the advantage of specimen preparation but also the capability of providing various information from extremely small specimen regions, using strong interactions between electrons and the substance. On the other hand, however, this strong interaction has a big disadvantage in high radiation damage.

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