The reformed social sciences to reform the university: mission impossible?

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davydd J. Greenwood ◽  
Morten Levin
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Research Network ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Organisational Factors ◽  
The University

The core argument is that social science must re-examine its mission and praxis in order to be a significant player in future higher education. This article reviews the results and prospects arising from a four-year international project. Originating in Greenwood and Levin's concern about the social sciences, the project, funded by the Ford Foundation, was organised as an action research network of social scientists. Meeting several times over four years, the assembled group of scholars shifted focus from the future of the social sciences to broader questions of the future of higher education as a whole and the possible role of the social sciences. Four issues emerged as vital future challenges:• Collective denial among academics that knowledge production (research and teaching) is a collaborative effort and that individual academics depend on and are responsible for contributing to the health of the academic collectivity.• Academic freedom, conceived as an individual right is under siege and will have to be reconstructed to include both individual rights and collective and institutional responsibilities and rights in higher education.• An appreciation of the multiplicity of teaching, research and organisational factors that interact to constitute healthy universities is lacking in most quarters.• Technologies of accountability now drive the development of higher education towards a focus on an artificially narrow metrics of knowledge-generation and away from inquiry into what constitutes relevant and sustainable knowledge-generation practices.

scholarly journals A Brief History of the Future of World Society

2005 ◽  
pp. 159-169
Author(s):  
Mark Herkenrath ◽  
Claudia König ◽  
Hanno Scholtz
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Symposium ◽  
World Society ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Degree Of Certainty ◽  
History Of ◽  
University Of Zurich ◽  
The University

Earlier versions of the articles in this issue were presented and discussed atthe international symposium on “The Future of World Society,” held in June 2004 at the University of Zurich.¹ The theme of the symposium implied two assumptions. One, there is in fact a world society, though still very much in formation. And two, as social scientists we are in a position to predict the future of that society with at least some degree of certainty. The ?rst of these assumptions will be addressed in Alberto Martinelli’s timely contribution, “From World System to World Society?” It is the second assumption which is of interest to us in this introduction. Are the social sciences really able to predict the future of world society?

scholarly journals Future Anticipation in Sociology

2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-341
Author(s):  
Carlos Miguel Ferreira ◽  
Sandro Serpa
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Processes ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social ◽  
Scientific Approach ◽  
The Future ◽  
Object Of Study ◽  
Scientific Fields

The ability to make forecasts about events is a goal favored by the so-called exact sciences. In sociology and other social sciences, the forecast, although often sought after, is not likely to be realized unconditionally. This article seeks to problematize and discuss the connection between sociology and forecast. The object of study of sociology has particular features that distinguish it from other scientific fields, namely facts and social situations, which deal with trends; the systems of belief of social scientists and policymakers that can influence the attempt to anticipate the future; the dissemination of information and knowledge produced by sociology and other social sciences, which have the potential to change reality and, consequently, to call into question their capacity for the social forecast. These principles pose challenges to sociology’s heuristic potentials, making the reflection on these challenges indispensable in the scientific approach to social processes.

scholarly journals A Pragmatist's Guide to Prediction in the Social Sciences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark D. Verhagen
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Life ◽  
Simple Technique ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Philosophical Debate ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Out Of Sample ◽  
The Rich ◽  
The Many

Making out-of-sample predictions is an under-utilised tool in the social sciences, often for the wrong reasons. Many social scientists confuse prediction with unnecessarily complicated methods, or narrowly predicting the future. This is unfortunate, because prediction understood as the simple process of evaluating a model outside of the sample used for estimation is a much more general, and disarmingly simple technique that brings a host of benefits to our empirical workflow. One needn't use complicated methods or be solely concerned with predicting the future to use prediction, nor is it necessary to resolve the centuries-old philosophical debate between prediction and explanation to appreciate its benefits. Prediction can and should be used as a simple complement to the rich methodological tradition in the social sciences, and is equally applicable across a vast multitude of modelling approaches, owing to its simplicity and intuitive nature. For all its simplicity, the value of prediction should not be underestimated. Prediction can address some of the most enduring sources of criticism plaguing the social sciences, like lack of external validity and the use of overly simplistic models to capture social life. In this paper, I illustrate these benefits with a host of empirical examples that merely skim the surface of the many and varied ways in which prediction can be applied, staking the claim that prediction is one of those illustrious `free lunches' that can greatly benefit the empirical social sciences.

SIM’s Directions: “Back to the Future”

2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (7) ◽  
pp. 1418-1425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwin M. Epstein
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Issues ◽  
Business Organizations ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Future ◽  
Service Award ◽  
History Of ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The University

This essay addresses directions for the Social Issues in Management (SIM) Division from the perspective of “Back to the Future.” The author was chair of the SIM Division in 1983 to 1984 and the 1989 recipient of the SIM Division’s Sumner Marcus Distinguished Service Award. The essay reviews the general history of SIM during the 1960s and 1970s in which the University of California, Berkeley, played a key role in organizing conferences. The author explains his approach as an applied empiricist to research concerning SIM. The essentials are power, legitimacy, responsibility, rationality, and values, and understanding how they impact the ongoing day-to-day interactions within, between, and among business organizations, their leadership, and other sectors of society. SIM is a field of diverse inquiry which has been the recipient of perspectives and persons drawn not only from multiple disciplines, particularly from the social sciences, law, and management, but also from the humanities and sciences. SIM is patently multi- and inter-disciplinary.

scholarly journals Perspective sur la prospective

2009 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 330-342
Author(s):  
Jean-Luc Migué
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Adaptation Mechanisms ◽  
The Social ◽  
The World ◽  
The Future ◽  
Physical Variables ◽  
Long Term Forecasting ◽  
World Output

Long term forecasting, as popularized by some recent models of the world, appears to be a-scientific from the standpoint of the social scientists. The basis for this radical judgment is threefold: First, structural relations incorporated into these models of the world seldom go further than stating rigid relations between some physical variables and world output. Second, the factual basis on which these relations are built is often not validated by past trends. Finally, the framework within which these models are cast rules out all possibly for the social sciences to contribute to our understanding of the future. Political and economic adaptation mechanisms are excluded. Futurology as developed by some models is based on poor measurement and poor theory.

The social scholar: re-interpreting scholarship in the shifting university

2015 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 277-284 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Greenhow ◽  
Benjamin Gleason
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Doctoral Students ◽  
Business Model ◽  
Knowledge Generation ◽  
Information Flows ◽  
Power Structures ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
The University

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a re-envisioning of traditional conceptualizations of scholarship informed by knowledge assets theory, trends shaping the modern university and technological advancements. We introduce social scholarship, a set of scholarly practices being envisioned within the conventional four domains of scholarship (i.e. discovery, integration, teaching and application). This paper provides concrete examples of the benefits and challenges of enacting social scholarly practices in light of Boisot’s theory of information flows, proprietary knowledge and the social learning cycle. Design/methodology/approach – This article is a cross-disciplinary conceptual exploration. Findings – In the model of social scholarship, access to knowledge is spreading faster than ever before; information flows are bi-directional in each domain (discovery, teaching, integration and application) where previously knowledge resided with the institution, flowing out to the public. Relationships between scholars and their university as well as between government, university, researchers and the public are being re-negotiated. Research limitations/implications – Certain limitations may exist, such as the conceptual alignment of a business model of knowledge generation to the university, which has particular cultures, service-orientations and power structures that are unique to academia. Practical implications – The alternative model for scholarship outlined in this paper has implications for those in higher education concerned with faculty recruitment, retention, professional development and performance review. The insights in this paper are also relevant for those concerned with the induction and training of doctoral students and preparation of future faculty programs. Social implications – The conceptualization of scholarship outlined in this paper has implications for a broad, non-specialist audience who seeks to access, critique and provide input on basic, interdisciplinary or applied research as well as teaching in higher education. Originality/value – Using a business model of knowledge generation, this paper introduces how current social media affordances and societal values can and are transforming conceptions of “the scholar,” “scholarship” and the university as knowledge-purveyor.

scholarly journals Capacity Diagnostics for Advancing Higher Education in the Developing World: A Case Study from the Republic of Panama

2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-16
Author(s):  
Nanette Svenson
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Organizational Development ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Developing Regions ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Republic ◽  
The University ◽  
Policy Adjustments

Vol. 7 Núm. 1 (2019): Investigación y Pensamiento Críticoenero-abril 2017 The past decade of global development has witnessed extensive use of capacity diagnostics for improving the systems and skills needed for national, institutional and organizational development. Little of this experience, however, has been applied to higher education. This paper presents a model for adapting capacity diagnostics to creation of tools for (1) documenting existing resources in higher education institutions or academic areas, and (2) detailing perceptions in the labor market of current assets and gaps to facilitate better planning for and development of required curricular, research and personnel capacities. This model is illustrated with a case study from the Republic of Panama where a North-South research partnership between the National Secretariat for Science, Technology and Innovation (SENACYT) and Tulane University applied the diagnostic to an assessment of the country’s higher education and research in the social sciences. Findings suggest significant discrepancies between the present academic offer and the skills and knowledge required by the productive sector; they also highlight specific institutional and policy adjustments that would strengthen the university system overall and preparation in the social sciences at all levels. This paper refers to the Panama case in a broader discussion of how this research approach may be applied more broadly to inform policy for countries’ higher education systems, particularly in developing regions. As higher education becomes increasingly important for emerging economies’ competitiveness, potential for adoption of this model worldwide is considerable.

Emergence of geo-enabled research in social sciences: The case of societal higher education issues

2016 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnau Fombuena
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Higher Education ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
Internationalization Of Higher Education ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Global Trends ◽  
General Lack ◽  
Societal Challenges ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range

The rapid expansion of global trends and the internationalization of higher education are increasingly requiring the consideration of the geospatial factor for better-informed inquiries on the related societal challenges. The article’s findings point to the need to overcome education researchers’ general lack of interest in the geospatial dimension because it offers great opportunities for social scientists in a wide range of disciplines to take advantage of geo-enabled research capabilities to spatially analyze socio-educational issues and thus to benefit from the availability of an emerging perspective for enriching the current methodological practices in the social sciences in general.

WORK-BASED LEARNING IN HIGHER EDUCATION: EXPERIENCE AND CHALLENGES OF LEARNERS, WORKPLACES AND INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Roosipõld ◽  
Krista Loogma ◽  
Mare Kurvits ◽  
Kristina Murtazin
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
University Education ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Constructivist Learning Theory ◽  
Education Experience ◽  
Restaurant Management ◽  
The Social ◽  
The University ◽  
Social Constructivist Learning

In recent years, providing higher education in the form of work-based learning has become more important in the higher education (HE) policy and practice almost in all EU countries. Work-based learning (WBL) in HE should support the development of competences of self-guided learners and adjust the university education better to the needs of the workplace. The study is based on two pilot projects of WBL in HE in Estonia: Tourism and Restaurant Management professional HE programme and the master’s programme in Business Information Technology. The model of integrative pedagogy, based on the social-constructivist learning theory, is taken as a theoretical foundation for the study. A qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews with the target groups. The data analysis used a horizontal analysis to find cross-cutting themes and identify patterns of actions and connections. It appears, that the challenge for HE is to create better cooperation among stakeholders; the challenge for workplaces is connected with better involvement of students; the challenge for students is to take more initiative and responsibility in communication with workplaces.

ISLAMIC SOCIAL SCIENCES

1988 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mona Abul Fadl
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Belief Systems ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Social Foundations ◽  
Body Of Knowledge ◽  
Human Value ◽  
The Social ◽  
Western Values ◽  
Culture Brokers

The need for a relevant and instrumental body of knowledge that can secure the taskof historical reconstruction in Muslim societies originally inspired the da’wa for the Islamizationof knowledge. The immediate targets for this da’wa were the social sciences for obvious reasons.Their field directly impinges on the organization of human societies and as such carries intothe area of human value and belief systems. The fact that such a body of knowledge alreadyexisted and that the norms for its disciplined pursuit were assumed in the dominant practiceconfronted Muslim scholars with the context for addressing the issues at stake. How relevantwas current social science to Muslim needs and aspirations? Could it, in its present formand emphasis, provide Muslims with the framework for operationalizing their values in theirhistorical present? How instrumental is it in shaping the social foundations vital for the Muslimfuture? Is instrumentality the only criteria for such evaluations? In seeking to answer thesequestions the seeds are sown for a new orientation in the social sciences. This orientationrepresents the legitimate claims and aspirations of a long silent/silenced world culture.In locating the activities of Muslim social scientists today it is important to distinguishbetween two currents. The first is in its formative stages as it sets out to rediscover the worldfrom the perspective of a recovered sense of identity and in terms of its renewed culturalaffinities. Its preoccupations are those of the Muslim revival. The other current is constitutedof the remnants of an earlier generation of modernizers who still retain a faith in the universalityof Western values. Demoralized by the revival, as much as by their own cultural alientation,they seek to deploy their reserves of scholarship and logistics to recover lost ground. Bymodifying their strategy and revalorizing the legacy they hope that, as culture-brokers, theymight be more effective where others have failed. They seek to pre-empt the cultural revivalby appropriating its symbols and reinterpreting the Islamic legacy to make it more tractableto modernity. They blame Orientalism for its inherent fixations and strive to redress its selfimposedlimitations. Their efforts may frequently intersect with those of the Islamizing current,but should clearly not be confused with them. For all the tireless ingenuity, these effortsare more conspicuous for their industry than for their originality. Between the new breadof renovationists and the old guard of ‘modernizers’, the future of an Islamic Social Scienceclearly lies with the efforts of the former.Within the Islamizing current it is possible to distinguish three principal trends. The firstopts for a radical perspective and takes its stand on epistemological grounds. It questionsthe compatibility of the current social sciences on account of their rootedness in the paradigmof the European Enlightenment and its attendant naturalistic and positivist biases. Consistencedemands a concerted e€fort to generate alternative paradigms for a new social science fromIslamic epistemologies. In contrast, the second trend opts for a more pragmatic approachwhich assumes that it is possible to interact within the existing framework of the disciplinesafter adapting them to Islamic values. The problem with modern sciene is ethical, notepistemological, and by recasting it accordingly, it is possible to benefit from its strengthsand curtail its derogatory consequences. The third trend focuses on the Muslim scholar, rather ...

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document