scholarly journals Critical Analysis of Social Constructivism: Myth or Reality for Peace and Security

2020 ◽  
Vol V (I) ◽  
pp. 14-22
Author(s):  
Nazim Rahim ◽  
Asghar Ali
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
International System ◽  
Class Struggle ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Intrinsic Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
Peace And Security ◽  
Universal Truth

Subjectivity is the mother of all social sciences. There is no universal truth, there is no objective reality and there is no finality in social sciences. Final truth belongs to heaven, not to this world and none of the theories can claim finality or objectivity. Nonetheless, theories try to explain the truth, holding water, either more or less. Theories, highlighting the intrinsic nature of humans [good & bad], the structure of international system (anarchic)or class struggle[bourgeois & proletariat]are both researchable and discernible. Social Constructivism, on the other hand labels all the theories as social constructions and itself constructs an endless desert of ideas, develops absurdity, and makes the truth less accessible and more mythical. Social Constructivism, instead of explaining the truth is making it blurred and doubtful. Instead of ensuring clarity, its own assumptions are constructing a mythical world. This analytical paper critically analyzes the social constructivists' assumptions and their critique on all the established beliefs in general and mainstream perspectives in particular.

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and the Five Stages Model In Selected Social Work Textbooks

2020 ◽  
pp. 105413732093230
Author(s):  
Charles A. Corr
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Work ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Human Services ◽  
Social Work Students ◽  
Educational Programs ◽  
The Social ◽  
Provision Of Care ◽  
Hospice Palliative Care

Professional social work is a discipline in which practitioners often find themselves engaged in addressing issues related to illness, crises, and loss. Professional social work is also a discipline with links to many associated disciplines, especially those in the social sciences such as psychology, sociology, and gerontology, as well as provision of care in such fields as hospice/palliative care, bereavement support, and counseling. Exploring some aspects of educational programs for professional social workers may help illuminate how professionals are prepared to function in many of these disciplines and areas of human services. This article offers a critical analysis of one limited but important aspect of the education offered to social work students, namely how the work of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross and her five stages model are presented in five recent social work textbooks. In each case, there is a description and critical analysis of what authors of these five books write about these subjects. These analyses lead to suggestions concerning how these subjects should or should not be presented in educational programs for students and as guidelines for practice in social work, associated disciplines, and related areas of human services.

scholarly journals Social constructionism and climate science denial

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sven Ove Hansson
Keyword(s):  
Social Constructionism ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Natural World ◽  
Actual State ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
The Social ◽  
Strong Programme

Abstract It has been much debated whether epistemic relativism in academia, for instance in the form of social constructivism, the strong programme, deconstructionism, and postmodernism, has paved the way for the recent upsurge in science denial, in particular climate science denial. In order to provide an empirical basis for this discussion, an extensive search of the social science literature was performed. It showed that in the 1990s, climate science was a popular target among academic epistemic relativists. In particular, many STS scholars used it as an allegedly clear example of claims by natural scientists that should be treated as mere social constructions, rather than as reports on the actual state of the natural world. A few connections between social constructivists and corporate science denialism were also uncovered, but the extent of such connections could not be determined. With few exceptions, the stream of criticism of climate science from academic relativists has dwindled since the 1990s. One reason for this seems to be that the contrarian position lost its attraction when it became associated with corporate and right-wing propagandists.

Arviq! The Northern Hunter’s Spiritual Connection to Animals and Community Presenter:

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chelsea Drent
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Daily Activities ◽  
Social Constructions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Cultural Domination ◽  
Critical Social Science ◽  
Inuit Peoples ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

In Inuktituk, nuna means the land. It means the rocks, rivers, mountains and the forests. Nuna is everything, and all parts of the nuna have an inua, which means a living soul. There is a special, if not sacred relationship between members of northern communities and the nuna. However, these sacred relationships are all too often glossed over, if not forgotten. In the social sciences, author John Sorenson articulates a critical argument and evocative opinions about hunting in his article; Hunting is a Part of Human Nature (John Sorenson, “Hunting is a Part of Human Nature,” Culture of Prejudice, Arguments in Critical Social Science. Eds. Judith Blackwell, Murray Smith, John Sorenson, (Canada: Broadview Press, 2003).Sorenson demonstrates that hunting is an unnatural human activity which is linked to a cultural domination over animals. However, in these statements Sorenson neglects to consider the northern hunter in Inuit communities around the world. Cultural myths, social constructions and daily activities prove that hunting animals is a core value to how many Inuit peoples relate to each other and perceive themselves in the cosmos. This is a study that examines the relationship of people, land, animals and faith in order to understand the significance of hunting within Inuit cultures.

scholarly journals Methodology, Fake Learning, and Emotional Performativity

2021 ◽  
pp. 209653112098478
Author(s):  
Bruce Macfarlane
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Significant Role ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Postgraduate Education ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Postgraduate Students ◽  
Economic Issues ◽  
The Social

Purpose: Academics are at the forefront of criticisms about so-called “fake news” considered to undermine evidence-based approaches to the understanding of complex social, political, and economic issues. However, universities contribute to the production of fake news through the legitimization of measures that promote student performativity rewarding their academic non-achievements. This conceptual article will seek to illustrate how this can occur via the writing of methodology chapters by postgraduate students. Design/Approach/Methods: This article provides a critical analysis of the writing of methodology chapters in dissertations and theses in postgraduate education in the social sciences. In so doing, it applies the concept of performativity to student learning. Findings: It is argued that the pressures on students to comply with the requirements of emotional performativity in respect to ideology and method in close-up, qualitative research can lead to fake learning. This phenomenon may be exemplified by reference to a number of practices, namely, phony positionality, methodolatry, ethical cleansing, participatory posturing, and symbolic citation. Originality/Value: This article provides an illustration of the concept of student performativity. It demonstrates that emotional performativity plays a significant role in the way in which students are required to comply with expectations that give rise to inauthenticity in learning.

scholarly journals A Discourse on the Contemporary Relevance of the Educational Underpinning of Plato’s Political Philosophy

2021 ◽  
pp. 35-44
Author(s):  
Olaiya Olajumoke Olufunmilola
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Theory ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Theories ◽  
Social Ordering ◽  
Plato's Political Philosophy ◽  
Better Than

The journey towards social ordering and the need to make life much better than it used to be is one of the principal motivations for political philosophy. Hence, there are as much political theories to this effect as there are political philosophers and scientists. Whereas the aim of the present research is to consider what kind of political theory can assist in social ordering, it does this, taking cognizance of the pedagogical postulates of the political scholar, Plato. In other words, this research reconsiders the educational underpinning of Plato’s political philosophy for use in the quest toward the agenda of attaining nationhood in Nigeria. This comes as a consequence of the urgency to correct the ugly trend(s) that have greeted the educational system of the country as well as the failure of the social sciences to provide the much sought succor. This approach is sacrosanct because of the undue but accentuated emphases that have been given to the social sciences as the domain from which development and nationhood can spring. Incidentally, the journey toward nationhood for Nigeria, continues to be one of the most disturbing dilemmas that continues to haunt the country. Via the method of critical analysis, this essay argues that Plato’s political philosophy has some educational ideals that present implications for contemporaneous nature or character of contemporary Nigeria. By giving emphasis on his reflections on the principle of specialization, this study is able to argue that the spirited application of this ideal for contemporary Nigeria via pedagogy will go a long way to birth the much sought nationhood. Political philosophy needs pedagogy to be able to realize its ideals. Unless this initiative is underscored, this essay submits, the quest for nationhood will continue to lament in the labyrinth of folly and backwardness.

‘The loss of innocence’ in historical perspective

Antiquity ◽  
1998 ◽  
Vol 72 (277) ◽  
pp. 694-698 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce G. Trigger
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Archaeological Theory ◽  
History Of Archaeology ◽  
Dual Tasks ◽  
Intrinsic Nature ◽  
The Social ◽  
History Of ◽  
Single Discipline ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
And Control

The dual tasks of this paper are to examine David Clarke’s ideas about the development of archaeology as they relate both to the era when ‘the loss of innocence’ was written and to what has happened since. In his treatment of the history of archaeology offered in that essay, Clarke subscribed to at least two of the key tenets of the behaviourist and utilitarian approaches that dominated the social sciences in the 1960s: neoevolutionism and ecological determinism.Clarke viewed the development of archaeology as following a unilinear sequence of stages from consciousness through self-consciousness to critical self-consciousness. The first stage began with archaeology defining its subject matter and what archaeologists do. As its database and the procedures required for studying it became more elaborate, self-conscious archaeology emerged as a ‘series of divergent and selfreferencing regional schools … with regionally esteemed bodies of archaeological theory and locally preferred forms of description, interpretation and explanation’ (Clarke 1973: 7). At the stage of critical self-consciousness, regionalism was replaced by a conviction that ‘archaeologists hold most of their problems in common and share large areas of general theory within a single discipline’ (1973: 7). Archaeology was now defined by ‘the characteristic forms of its reasoning, the intrinsic nature of its knowledge and information, and its competing theories of concepts and their relationships’ (1973: 7). Clarke looked forward to a fourth (and ultimate?) phase of self-critical self-consciousncss, when the new archaeology would monitor and control its own development.

scholarly journals Islamization of Knowledge

1992 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 410-415
Author(s):  
Masudul Alam Choudhury
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
True Belief ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Modus Operandi ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Universe

This well-written book comprehensively outlines the basic precepts onwhich a concept and a program of Islamization of knowledge must, accordingto the author, rest. In his attempt to outline these directions, the author firstdefines the concept of Islamization as " ... practising (i.e., discovering, compiling,piecing together, communicating and publishing) intellectual activitybased on the Islamic concept of the universe" (p. 5). He further states that"'Islamization' covers everything within the realm of the true belief in theexistence of Allah (SWT)" (p. 5). This definition is enhanced by Khalil's unequivocalreference to the Shari'ah and fiqh, the derivative of the Qur'an andthe Sunnah, as being the principal background for the Islamization process.Another important aspect of Islamization, according to the author, is theabsence of dualism in this framework. He says that in the quest for establishingthe Islamic dimensions of belief in the diversity of human acquisitions,all "that might lead to dualism between the Divine orientation and its absoluteknowledge and the conflicting relativism of human efforts" (p. 6) must beavoided.The author correctly points out that Islamization must be carried out onboth the theoretical (normative) and the practical (positive) aspects of the sciences.It is here, however, that a series of questions arise and which, in turn,lead to a critical analysis that seemingly does not support the author's thesison the modus operandi and worldview of Islamization. Internal inconsistencieswithin the arguments presented also lead to several difficulties. In my analysisof some of these problematic points, I will use the tawhidi precept that tentersthe Islamization process.Islamizing the Natural and the Social SciencesKhalil says that the natutal and the social sciences are not amenable tothe same degtee of Islamization. In his view, the social sciences will be Islamizedbefore the natural sciences: "... sciences such as civil engineering, algebra,trigonometry or mathematics in general, as well as other disciplineslike statistics, chemistry and possibly geology, may not be related to the process"(p. 7) ...

Philosophical debates

2018 ◽  
pp. 44-64
Author(s):  
Mark Bevir ◽  
Jason Blakely
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Michel Foucault ◽  
Social Constructivism ◽  
Edmund Husserl ◽  
Charles Taylor ◽  
The Social ◽  
Philosophical Debates ◽  
Hans Georg Gadamer ◽  
Interpretive Turn

This chapter considers some of the major philosophical traditions that have established the need for an interpretive turn in the social sciences—including phenomenology, post-structuralism, pragmatism, analytic philosophy, and social constructivism. We reject the view that there is only one privileged philosophical route to an interpretive social science. Instead, the philosophical pluralism of the interpretive turn is defended albeit from a uniquely anti-naturalist perspective. Specifically, anti-naturalism corrects the tendency of some advocates of the interpretive turn to drift back into naturalist concepts as well as to distort the proper conception of human agency. Major philosophers of the interpretive turn are critically engaged, including Edmund Husserl, Michel Foucault, Charles Taylor, and Hans-Georg Gadamer.

scholarly journals Where Is This Story Going? A Critical Analysis of the Emerging Field of Narrative Criminology

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shadd Maruna ◽  
Marieke Liem
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Online Publication ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
Annual Review ◽  
Publication Date ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Social ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
History Of ◽  
Narrative Scholarship

Over the past decade, a growing body of literature has emerged under the umbrella of narrative criminology. We trace the origins of this field to narrative scholarship in the social sciences more broadly and review the recent history of criminological engagement in this field. We then review contemporary developments, paying particular attention to research around desistance and victimology. Our review highlights the most important critiques and challenges for narrative criminology and suggests fruitful directions in moving forward. We conclude by making a case for the consolidation and integration of narrative criminology, in hopes that this movement becomes more than an isolated clique. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 4 is January 13, 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

scholarly journals What's it like to be a state? An argument for state consciousness

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam B. Lerner
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Final Section ◽  
International System ◽  
State Level ◽  
Emergent Properties ◽  
Stream Of Consciousness ◽  
Ontological Security ◽  
Complete Understanding ◽  
The Social

Abstract Questions of consciousness pervade the social sciences. Yet, despite persistent tendencies to anthropomorphize states, most International Relations scholarship implicitly adopts the position that humans are conscious and states are not. Recognizing that scholarly disagreement over fundamental issues prevents answering definitively whether states are truly conscious, I instead demonstrate how scholars of multiple dispositions can incorporate a pragmatic notion of state consciousness into their theorizing. Drawing on recent work from Eric Schwitzgebel and original supplementary arguments, I demonstrate that states are not only complex informationally integrated systems with emergent properties, but they also exhibit seemingly genuine responses to qualia that are irreducible to individuals within them. Though knowing whether states possess an emergent ‘stream’ of consciousness indiscernible to their inhabitants may not yet be possible, I argue that a pragmatic notion of state consciousness can contribute to a more complete understanding of state personhood, as well as a revised model of the international system useful to multiple important theoretical debates. In the article's final section, I apply this model to debate over the levels of analysis at which scholarship applies ontological security theory. I suggest the possibility of emergent state-level ontological insecurity that need not be understood via problematic reduction to individuals.

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