scholarly journals Social Robots: A Bridge Between the Two Cultures

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riccardo Campa
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Social Robots ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
The One

This paper aims to show the possible and actual synergies between social robotics and sociology. The author argues that social robots are one of the best fields of inquiry to provide a bridge between the two cultures — the one represented by the social sciences and the humanities on the one hand, and the one represented by the natural sciences and engineering on the other. To achieve this result, quantitative and qualitative analyses are implemented. By using scientometric tools like Ngram Viewer, search engines such as Google Scholar, and hand calculations, the author detects the emergence of the term-and-concept ‘social robots’ in its current use, the absolute and relative frequencies of this term in the scientific literature in the period 1800–2008, the frequency distribution of publications including this term in the period 2000–2019, and the magnitude of publications in which the term ‘social robots’ is associated to the term ‘sociology’ or ’social work’. Finally, employing qualitative analysis and focusing on exemplary cases, this paper shows different ways of implementing researches that relate sociology to robotics, from a theoretical or instrumental point of view. It is argued that sociologists and engineers could work in a team to observe, analyze, and describe the interaction between humans and social robots, by using research techniques and theoretical frames provided by sociology. In turn, this knowledge can be used to build more effective and humanlike social robots. Keywords: social robots, sociology, social work, meta-analysis, scientometrics

Defending the Difference

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
True Nature ◽  
Natural Entities ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
Methodological Difference ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The One

Dreyfus argues that there is a basic methodological difference between the natural sciences and the social sciences, a difference that derives from the different goals and practices of each. He goes on to argue that being a realist about natural entities is compatible with pluralism or, as he calls it, “plural realism.” If intelligibility is always grounded in our practices, Dreyfus points out, then there is no point of view from which one can ask about or provide an answer to the one true nature of ultimate reality. But that is consistent with believing that the natural sciences can still reveal the way the world is independent of our theories and practices.

scholarly journals ПОНЯТТЯ ТА СУТНІСТЬ СОЦІАЛЬНОЇ ІНКЛЮЗІЇ У СОЦІАЛЬНІЙ РОБОТІ

2019 ◽  
pp. 233-241
Author(s):  
О. О. Стрельнікова
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Group Dynamics ◽  
Social Inclusion ◽  
Social Process ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Mechanism ◽  
The Social ◽  
Ukrainian Society

The present article is devoted to the problems of inclusion in modern Ukrainian society. The concept and essence of inclusion are studied from the point of view of the theory of social comprehension (of the essence of inclusive group), dynamics of social structure and social interactions. The inclusion is divided into social and educational forms according to the modern approaches to considering types of inclusion. The main forms of inclusion are analyzed from the point of view of pedagogical and social sciences. Special attention is given to the social inclusion in modern Ukrainian society. The comparative analysis of the categories «integration» and «inclusion» is carried out and the main common and distinctive features of these categories are determined in the article. It is said that social inclusion can be analyzed only in context of social exclusion, because they are both parts of the same social process. The potential of such further analysis are researched. The peculiarities of the process of social inclusion in modern Ukrainian society are analyzed. The main characteristics of social inclusion are described in the article on the basis of analysis of modern scientific literature. Special attention is given to the social inclusion in social work and social science. From the point of view of socio-pedagogical science social inclusion is analyzed as democratic action about comprehension somebody or the whole social group into some activity or cultural process. Social inclusion in modern Ukrainian society becomes social mechanism, some kind of an instrument, aimed at overcoming the barriers and constraints on the path to social well-being, which radically changes the existing state social politics. The results of the research are used in the social work, pedagogical and social sciences.

Challenges for Science

2021 ◽  
pp. 170-195
Author(s):  
Harvey Whitehouse
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Life Sciences ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Transdisciplinary Research ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Transdisciplinary Collaboration

The book ends by calling for a new kind of science of the social, one that recognizes the immense challenges posed by the sheer complexity of sociocultural phenomena and the fact that our evolved psychology is not well designed to grasp, let alone address, those challenges. Nevetheless, we live in a time when the potential rewards of transdisciplinary collaboration are richer than they have ever been before. This chapter describes some of the main hurdles to achieving that potential and discusses how these might be overcome. The very enterprise of social science is inherently unnatural, given our uniquely human evolved psychology, and this may explain why the study of the social has proven harder to get off the ground, in comparison with many other life sciences. The resulting lack of consensus on basic matters of epistemology and method has contributed to the creation of theoretical and methodological divisions in the social sciences in the alternate guises of the ‘two cultures problem’ and the ‘silo effect’. The solutions proposed here advocate new forms of problem-centred transdisciplinary research based on the kinds of cross-cultural collaborative programmes described in detail throughout the book.

WOMEN‘S STUDIES IN SOCIOLOGY: A PERFUMED GHETTO?

1981 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-8
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Women's Studies ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Women’S Studies ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Status ◽  
The One ◽  
The Impact

One of the fields of sociology which is experiencing a dramatic explosion is that catch‐all area of Women's Studies. Books and articles touching on women's experiences in the labour market or in the home, the education of girls or images of femininity, the impact of the law on women or sexism in the social sciences have been proliferating in the last decade. Much of the impetus has been provided by the renascent Women's Movement, and the various academic concerns echo the diverse attacks on the status quo being made by politically active women. The one thing which holds all this material together is an explicit concern to bring women to the centre of the stage in the social sciences, instead of leaving them (as they so often have been) in the wings or with mere walk‐on parts. Taking the woman's point of view is seen as a legitimate corrective to the tendency to ignore women altogether. But is this sufficient to constitute the nucleus of a new speciality within sociology, which is what seems to be happening to ‘Women's Studies’ and ‘feminist’ social science? More seriously, should sociological discussions of women be ghettoised into special courses on women in society? As a preliminary attempt to redress the balance maybe such separate development can be justified, but if that is all that happens, the enriching potential of feminist social science may well be lost to mainstream sociology. It is not just that feminist social scientists want women to be brought in to complete the picture. It is not just that they claim that half the picture is being left unexposed. The claims are often much more ambitious than that: what much feminist writing is attempting is a demonstration of the distortion in the half image which is exposed. An injection of feminist thinking into practically any sociological speciality could lead to a profound re‐orientation of that field. More than this, a feminist approach can indicate the ways in which traditional boundaries between sociological specialities can obscure women and their special position in society. Feminist social scientists throw down the gauntlet on the way in which the field of sociology has traditionally been carved up. But if women's studies are kept in their ghetto, this challenge will be lost: to me, the explicitly critical stance which feminist research takes with respect to mainstream sociology is one of its most exciting qualities, and such research has important insights to contribute to the development of the discipline.

The Text is a Text is a Text

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marija Dalbello
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
History Of The Book ◽  
Literary Studies ◽  
Digital Text ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
Scholarly Literature ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
History Of

The paper proposed here examines what history of the book can bring to the study of digital literacy. Current scholarly literature on digital text and literacy is multidisciplinary, dispersed in the social sciences and the humanities between the two cultures of research which are difficult to reconcile. A sizable literature in the area of literary studies and rhetoric from the early 1900s added. . .

scholarly journals Social and economic analysis of the interaction between priesthood and royalty in Ptolemaic Egypt

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (26) ◽  
pp. 158-164
Author(s):  
Nataliya S. Basalova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Analysis ◽  
Private Property ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Royal Power ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One ◽  
The Temple ◽  
The Church

The article analyzes social and economic relations between the priesthood and the Ptolemaic kings. The author examines the peculiarities of this issue coverage in Russian and foreign scientific literature, concluding that the problem was viewed more from a materialistic, religious, or artistic perspective, but not from the point of view of socio-economic analysis. The author considers the well-known fact of the Ptolemies' tolerance to the existence of the priesthood caste and their specific status in Egyptian society and studies the specificity of economic relations between power and the priesthood. The author makes a conclusion about the existence of a complex financial scheme which was beneficial both for the Ptolemies and the priesthood, as it was aimed at increasing the amount of temple lands: on the one hand, the policy raised the prosperity and the social status of priests, but, on the other hand, it led to the increase of lands which belonged to the Ptolemies by right of supreme rulers. However, basing on documents, the author states that under the Ptolemies private property of the priests became symbolic and was subjected to forced sale in case the priests had any debts to the royal treasury. The author emphasizes the fact that under the Ptolemies the priesthood became legal holders of the temple posts, while under the pharaohs priests’ positions were hereditary. Thus, royal power could influence social policy of the church, while the pharaohs were not allowed to interfere in it. The author concludes that the introduction of the sale of temple posts affected not only the material position of the priests, but also their status, as it influenced the requirements set for the candidates to priests. The author also examines the methods of economic pressure on the part of the Ptolemies (asilia, apomoira), which led to both economic subjection of temples to royal power and to the loss of the priests' right of autonomy in financial matters.

scholarly journals Positivist Misconceptions of Science and the Search for Viable Solutions

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 108
Author(s):  
Chompalov Ivan ◽  
Lubomir Popov
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Institution ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
State Funding ◽  
Two Cultures ◽  
Social Studies Of Science ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Two Cultures ◽  
Science Wars ◽  
Feasible Path

Prevailing current definitions of science are largely based on a traditional, positivist paradigm that favors the natural sciences and either denies or downplays the scientific status of the social sciences and the humanities. The disciplinary organization and institutionalization of research and systematic inquiry is still the norm. This article argues that the rigid organization of science and indeed the dominant view that there are hard sciences and soft sciences with the latter occupying an inferior position with regard to their knowledge claims and utility is pretty outmoded and does not fit well the current challenges and global needs. This is not just an academic issue but has clear practical implications in terms of funding and staffing, as well as the distribution of other valuable resources, especially in view of the dwindling federal and state funding for both the natural sciences and the humanities and social sciences. We develop our argument using as a methodological platform the ideas of ‘The Two Cultures,’ the ‘Science Wars,’ the new constructivist turn in social studies of science, and science as a social institution. We argue that current definitions of science need to be modified to include the humanities and to emancipate the social sciences and the ‘soft’ paradigms associated with them. This can form the basis of an earnest effort for better integration of different kinds of disciplines and for achieving much needed synergisms to tackle complex problems that tend to be multifaceted and whose solutions do not easily conform to single disciplinary paradigms. The contention here is that such a bridge between the two cultures can use as a model the social sciences, since they successfully combine methods from the natural sciences with approaches and theories common in the humanities. In our opinion, this is a feasible path to both greater interdisciplinarity and more vigorous collaboration between the different branches of science that can benefit both working scientists and society at large when dealing with pressing issues like environmental problems, the depletion of natural resources, pandemics, and natural disasters.

To the Question of the Classification Patterns of Social Stratification in the Countries of the World (Brief Overview of Some Concepts and Author’s Comment)

2020 ◽  
pp. 65-75
Author(s):  
S. N. Smirnov
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Stratification ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Scientific Literature ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
The World

The author considers the problems of typification of society. Some concepts of typification of social stratification models in different countries formulated and justified in historical and legal, historical, sociological, and economic scientific literature are reviewed. The circumstances that make it difficult to formulate universal concepts designed for application in the complex of social Sciences are identified. These circumstances include insufficient consideration of legal factors, including the position of the legislator, the specifics of the corporate legal status, and the characteristics of the mechanism for changing individual legal status. The author offers a variant of classification of society types from the point of view of legal registration of their structure. The possibility of distinguishing types such as consolidated companies and segmented companies is justified.

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