To Mine or Not to Mine?

Author(s):  
Jesus Pedro Zamora Bonilla ◽  
Simone Centuori

Social studies of science have flourished within the last decades, making use of numerous intellectual tools from a high variety of academic fields in the social sciences and the humanities (sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, etc.). Game theory, however, has been one tool that has not been put to use too often, in spite of the obvious importance of strategic considerations in the negotiations between the relevant actors in research episodes. In this chapter, the authors illustrate the use of game-theoretical concepts and techniques with the analysis of a nascent research field: asteroid mining.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-95
Author(s):  
Alexandra Bitušíková

A large number of studies within the social sciences have been devoted to the relationship between cultural heritage and cultural/ heritage tourism development in recent years and even decades. This area of study has been an object of interest for numerous disciplines, from economics, geography, sociology and history, to ethnology, sociocultural anthropology, museology and cultural studies. The study aims to present selected theories on cultural heritage and heritage tourism based on recent theoretical concepts, and to reflect their implementation within a particular national and regional context based on a case study of the Banská Bystrica Self-Governing Region, Slovakia.


1968 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 281
Author(s):  
Philip F. Detweiler ◽  
Mark M. Krug ◽  
Joseph S. Roucek

2009 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEIGH TURNER

Polemicists and disciplinary puritans commonly make a sharp distinction between the normative, “prescriptive,” philosophical work of bioethicists and the empirical, “descriptive” work of anthropologists and sociologists studying medicine, healthcare, and illness. Though few contemporary medical anthropologists and sociologists of health and illness subscribe to positivism, the legacy of positivist thought persists in some areas of the social sciences. It is still quite common for social scientists to insist that their work does not contain explicit normative analysis, offers no practical recommendations for social reform or policy making, and simply interprets social worlds.


Author(s):  
Haoxiang Xia ◽  
Huili Wang ◽  
Zhaoguo Xuan

As a key sub-field of social dynamics and sociophysics, opinion dynamics utilizes mathematical and physical models and the agent-based computational modeling tools, to investigate the spreading of opinions in a collection of human beings. This research field stems from various disciplines in social sciences, especially the social influence models developed in social psychology and sociology. A multidisciplinary review is given in this paper, attempting to keep track of the historical development of the field and to shed light on its future directions. In the review, the authors discuss the disciplinary origins of opinion dynamics, showing that the combination of the social processes, which are conventionally studied in social sciences, and the analytical and computational tools, which are developed in mathematics, physics and complex system studies, gives birth to the interdisciplinary field of opinion dynamics. The current state of the art of opinion dynamics is then overviewed, with the research progresses on the typical models like the voter model, the Sznajd model, the culture dissemination model, and the bounded confidence model being highlighted. Correspondingly, the future directions of this academic field are envisioned, with an advocation for closer synthesis of the related disciplines.


2009 ◽  
pp. 207-223 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Landri

This chapter is dedicated to analyse the fabrication of networked socialities, that is to address the complex interweaving of technologies of information and communication and the manifold instantiations of sociality. Networked socialities are digital formations being produced out of the intertwining of social logics outside and inside digital spaces and society. Such contribution is organized as follows: first, it will present the theoretical frame necessary to grasp the fabrication of sociologies in our information age, drawing on some concepts elaborated by the social studies of science and technology, together with the studies of the global digital worlds. Then, it will highlight the analytical fruitfulness of this perspective by describing some digital formations, such as social network sites, virtual communities of practice, and electronic markets. Finally, it will discuss the effects and the implications of such fabrication as a re-configuration of social, the emerging post-social relationships as well as the increasing fragility of knowledge societies.


2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 100-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Copestake

This paper contributes to an ongoing conversation between development studies (DS) and social policy (SP) as academic fields, particularly in the UK. Using Andrew Abbott's analysis of the social sciences as an evolving system of knowledge lineages (KLs), it reflects on the status of DS and its relationship with SP. Defining DS as a distinctive KL centred on critical analysis of ideas and projects for advancing human well-being, I suggest that it has lost coherence even as research into international development thrives. Indeed it is easy to envisage its gradual assimilation into other KLs, including SP. The two increasingly overlap in their analysis of the causes of relative poverty and injustice, and what can be done to address them, within countries and globally. Strengthening links between the two fields can be justified as a political project, even at the risk of some loss of plurality and plenitude across the social sciences.


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