scholarly journals Situational analysis as a framework for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences

Human Affairs ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Kalenda
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Second Generation ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Methodological Framework ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Institutional Barriers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Suitable Framework

AbstractThis study presents situational analysis as a suitable framework for the development of qualitatively-oriented interdisciplinary research in the social sciences. The article argues that even though interdisciplinary research is considered a coveted form of research practice, it is not particularly well developed in the social sciences. This is partly due to institutional barriers, but also because the majority of disciplines lack a suitable theoretical and methodological framework capable of unifying a variety of theoretical bases and primarily methodological processes. Situational analysis, which is based on the work of second generation grounded theorists, is ideal for this purpose, as it offers a frame for theoretical, epistemological, empirical and methodological interdisciplinarity.

scholarly journals “I’ve had it!” Group therapy for interdisciplinary researchers

2015 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko Jurmu ◽  
Johanna Ylipulli ◽  
Anna Luusua
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Group Therapy ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Human Computer Interaction ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Industrial Design ◽  
The Third ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Common ◽  
Common Problems

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>In this workshop, we reflect on and share the fun and frustrations of working in interdisciplinary research. We ask participants to openly reflect on their experiences of interdisciplinarity. What approaches have worked and what have failed? In addition to identifying phenomena, we aim to sketch out the next decade of interdisciplinary research in computing, especially in HCI. The third paradigm of Human-Computer Interaction focuses on the qualitative aspects of use experience and the situatedness of technologies. This new orientation has drawn in researchers from various other research and arts backgrounds and traditions, including the social sciences, architecture and industrial design among others. Therefore, we consider this third paradigm to be inherently interdisciplinary. Through workshop participants’ reflection of their own experiences, we strive to identify the common problems and pitfalls of interdisciplinary research, and to celebrate successes, as well as share best practices. </span></p></div></div></div>

scholarly journals Assessing Interdisciplinary Research in the Social Sciences: Are we on the right track?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua Eykens
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Policy Making ◽  
Research Policy ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Research Assessment ◽  
Seven Principles ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Right

In this chapter we first discuss how interdisciplinarity is perceived in research policy making and in applied bibliometric research. We put forward a processual view on disciplines and interdisciplinarity in the social sciences which emphasizes the changing nature of disciplines and the heterogeneity of individual fields. This view challenges the current status quo in the development of bibliometric indicators as well as qualitative research assessment exercises. We propose a stance in which the focus is shifted to the changing dynamics of the social sciences in order to develop a better understanding of interdisciplinarity. We point out that the cognitive and socio-cultural diversity of disciplines makes it difficult to transfer current disciplinary peer review practices to the evaluation of interdisciplinarity. We reiterate seven principles proposed by Klein which might guide more appropriate evaluation practices suitable for the assessment of interdisciplinarity in the social sciences.

scholarly journals Happiness Studies

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Margareta Hallberg ◽  
Christopher Kullenberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Research Field ◽  
Science And Society ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Way

This article is about the growth and establishment of the interdisciplinary research field ”Happiness Studies”. This article focuses on how research on happiness has become a quickly growing and successful field within western societies and what it says about both the social sciences and contemporary social order. The concept of co-production, as defined by Sheila Jasanoff, is used to show how science and society interact and influence each other. Hence, we show how happiness has become a significant topic for empirical studies and the way interdisciplinary research is intertwined with what is perceived as both challenging and worth striving for in society and culture.

scholarly journals Interdisciplinary Researches and the Progress of Human Societies in the New Millennium: Practical Experiences and Futuristic Options

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 155
Author(s):  
Hany Khamis Abdo
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Cognitive Limitations ◽  
Research Areas ◽  
The Social ◽  
Practical Experiences ◽  
New Research ◽  
Societal Problems

Interdisciplinary Research is a fertile ground for researchers in the modern era, as is represents the importance in the study of various phenomena of society and its issues and complex problems that need to cross the barriers and cognitive limitations among social and natural sciences. It could be argued that after decades of increased specialization on the vertical level (any connection between the social sciences) and the horizontal level (any connection between the social sciences and natural sciences) it has become noticeable that there is an increasing trend towards financing projects and research programs that are trying to promote interdisciplinary research as a means to encourage scientific technological progress, benefit human development, and improve the quality of life. Interdisciplinary research that relies on cognitive interaction is not an end in itself but a means to support research efforts to address societal problems and to promote a competitive environment through which knowledge can be acquired. This is achieved through the integration of knowledge or the formulation of new research areas based on the integration of knowledge from different fields. In the light of the above, the paper aims to shed light on the features of interdisciplinary research and on the extent it can be used to study human societies by reviewing practical applications in the field of interdisciplinary research. 

scholarly journals Pot, kettle: Nonliteral titles aren’t (natural) science

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 1638-1652
Author(s):  
Mike Thelwall
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Journal Article ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Poetic License ◽  
Formal Science

Researchers may be tempted to attract attention through poetic titles for their publications, but would this be mistaken in some fields? Although poetic titles are known to be common in medicine, it is not clear whether the practice is widespread elsewhere. This article investigates the prevalence of poetic expressions in journal article titles from 1996–2019 in 3.3 million articles from all 27 Scopus broad fields. Expressions were identified by manually checking all phrases with at least five words that occurred at least 25 times, finding 149 stock phrases, idioms, sayings, literary allusions, film names, and song titles or lyrics. The expressions found are most common in the social sciences and the humanities. They are also relatively common in medicine, but almost absent from engineering and the natural and formal sciences. The differences may reflect the less hierarchical and more varied nature of the social sciences and humanities, where interesting titles may attract an audience. In engineering, natural science, and formal science fields, authors should take extra care with poetic expressions in case their choice is judged inappropriate. This includes interdisciplinary research overlapping these areas. Conversely, reviewers of interdisciplinary research involving the social sciences should be more tolerant of poetic license.

scholarly journals Climate Change: A Bibliometric Study of Adaptation, Mitigation and Resilience

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (17) ◽  
pp. 6935 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Einecker ◽  
Andrew Kirby
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Climate Change ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
Bibliometric Study ◽  
Stem Fields ◽  
Production Of Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Web ◽  
Research And Policy

The paper uses bibliometric methods to explore the production of knowledge in the field of climate change from 1991–2019. Using the Web of Science database, we demonstrate the growth of publications in the field, including papers in mitigation, adaptation and resilience. Using VOSviewer software, we show the connections between these subfields and the journals in which they are published. The analysis displays clusters of publications in different subfields and minimal convergence of research in STEM fields and the social sciences. We suggest that this lack of convergence may reflect a relative shortage of interdisciplinary research which may in turn have negative outcomes in terms of research and policy.

The Apparent Failure of “Situational Analysis” to Take Hold and an Attempt at Revitalizing It

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 444-464
Author(s):  
Alfonso Palacio-Vera
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Neoclassical Economics ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social

“Situational Analysis” (SA) constitutes Popper’s methodological proposal for the social sciences. We argue that notwithstanding Popper’s claim that SA is an attempt to extend the methodology of neoclassical economics to the rest of the social sciences, the former is better interpreted as an extension of his view of the “method” of history to the “theoretical” social sciences. The reason is that, unlike neoclassical economics, Popper’s formulation of SA presupposes that social scientists exhibit a “more complete” view of the “logic of the situation” than individual actors do, on average, which implies that the latter’s knowledge is “partially wrong” or “incomplete.”

Comment On D. Wade Hands, “Karl Popper and Economic Methodology: A New Look”

1985 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 286-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Blaug
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Scientific Method ◽  
Economic Methodology ◽  
Situational Analysis ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Interesting Paper ◽  
The Social ◽  
Unique Method ◽  
Central Argument ◽  
The One

The central argument of this interesting paper is that Popper appears to be inconsistent: on the one hand, he preaches methodological monism-scientific method in the social sciences is identical to scientific method in the natural sciences-and on the other hand he advocates “situational analysis” as the unique method of the social sciences. Situational analysis is nothing but our old neoclassical friend, the rationality principle-individual maximizing behavior subject to constraints-and thus, Popper seems to be saying, neoclassical economics is the only valid kind of social science.

scholarly journals Redefining the Traditional Pillars of German Legal Studies and Setting the Stage for Contemporary Interdisciplinary Research

2006 ◽  
Vol 7 (8) ◽  
pp. 661-680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephan Leibfried ◽  
Christoph Möllers ◽  
Christoph Schmid ◽  
Peer Zumbansen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Research University ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Relevant Research ◽  
German Government ◽  
Legal Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
Research Problems ◽  
Law Professors

This essay describes an emergent scheme for modernizing the study of law in German universities, creating a structure that is better equipped to address twentyfirst century socio-legal issues and bring legal scholarship to bear on relevant research problems in the social sciences—and vice versa. It is a by-product of efforts by University of Bremen professors and administrators to foster their university's coming of age as a mature, internationally recognized research university and to compete for new funds that the German government is making available to select universities. As such, it provides a rare example of the integration of legal studies into a large interdisciplinary research program, and of law professors rising to the challenges of contemporary funding demands, joining forces with political scientists, sociologists, economists, and philosophers.

Exploring Another’s Subjective Life-World

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (5) ◽  
pp. 563-579 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas S. Eberle
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Research Practice ◽  
Anglo Saxon ◽  
Life World ◽  
Phenomenological Hermeneutics ◽  
The Social ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
The Relationship

Regarding the relationship between phenomenology and the social sciences, significantly different traditions exist between German-speaking countries and the Anglo-Saxon world, which create many misunderstandings. Phenomenology is not just a research method; in its origin, it is a philosophy and has epistemological and methodological implications for empirical research. This essay pursues several goals: First, some basic tenets of Husserl’s phenomenology and Schutz’s mundane life-world analysis are restated. Second, an approach of “phenomenological hermeneutics” is presented that complies with the postulate of adequacy and aspires to understand other people’s life-worlds more profoundly than the widely accepted research practice of treating interview transcripts as data. The methodical procedure is illustrated using selected pieces from a case study of a patient who suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and became severely disoriented. Third, some crucial implications of such an approach are discussed in regard to a phenomenology-based ethnography.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document