How Social Science Got Better

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How Social Science Got Better

Matt Grossmann
How Social Science Got Better Book PDF

Author : Matt Grossmann
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Page : 353 pages
File Size : 49,5 Mb
Release : 2021-07-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780197518991

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How Social Science Got Better by Matt Grossmann Pdf

It seems like most of what we read about the academic social sciences in the mainstream media is negative. The field is facing mounting criticism, as canonical studies fail to replicate, questionable research practices abound, and researcher social and political biases come under fire. In response to these criticisms, Matt Grossmann, in How Social Science Got Better, provides a robust defense of the current state of the social sciences. Applying insights from the philosophy, history, and sociology of science and providing new data on research trends and scholarly views, he argues that, far from crisis, social science is undergoing an unparalleled renaissance of ever-broader understanding and application. According to Grossmann, social science research today has never been more relevant, rigorous, or self-reflective because scholars have a much better idea of their blind spots and biases. He highlights how scholars now closely analyze the impact of racial, gender, geographic, methodological, political, and ideological differences on research questions; how the incentives of academia influence our research practices; and how universal human desires to avoid uncomfortable truths and easily solve problems affect our conclusions. Though misaligned incentive structures of course remain, a messy, collective deliberation across the research community has shifted us into an unprecedented age of theoretical diversity, open and connected data, and public scholarship. Grossmann's wide-ranging account of current trends will necessarily force the academy's many critics to rethink their lazy critiques and instead acknowledge the path-breaking advances occurring in the social sciences today.

How Social Science Got Better

Associate Professor of Political Science Matt Grossmann,Matthew Grossmann
How Social Science Got Better Book PDF

Author : Associate Professor of Political Science Matt Grossmann,Matthew Grossmann
Publisher : Oxford University Press, USA
Page : 316 pages
File Size : 53,9 Mb
Release : 2021
Category : Social sciences
ISBN : 0197519008

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How Social Science Got Better by Associate Professor of Political Science Matt Grossmann,Matthew Grossmann Pdf

"Social science research is facing mounting criticism, as canonical studies fail to replicate, questionable research practices abound, and researcher social and political biases come under fire. Far from crisis, however, social science is undergoing an unparalleled renaissance of ever-broader and deeper understanding and application-made possible by close attention to criticism of our biases and open public engagement. Wars between scientists and their humanist critics, methodological disputes over statistical practice and qualitative research, and disciplinary battles over grand theories of human nature have all quietly died down as new generations of scholars have integrated the insights of multiple sides. Rather than deny that researcher biases affect results, scholars now closely analyze how our racial, gender, geographic, methodological, political, and ideological differences impact our research questions, how the incentives of academia influence our research practices, and how universal human desires to avoid uncomfortable truths and easily solve problems affect our conclusions. To be sure, misaligned incentive structures remain, but a messy, collective deliberation across the research community is boosting self-knowledge and improving practice. Ours is an unprecedented age of theoretical diversity, open and connected data, and public scholarship. How Social Science Got Better documents and explains recent transformations, crediting both internal and public critics for strengthening social science. Applying insights from the philosophy, history, and sociology of science and providing new data on trends in social science research and scholarly views, it demonstrates that social science has never been more relevant, rigorous, or self-reflective"--

Methods That Matter

M. Cameron Hay
Methods That Matter Book PDF

Author : M. Cameron Hay
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 459 pages
File Size : 55,7 Mb
Release : 2016-05-05
Category : Education
ISBN : 9780226328669

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Methods That Matter by M. Cameron Hay Pdf

To do research that really makes a difference -- the authors of this book argue -- social scientists need a diverse set of questions and methods, both qualitative and quantitative, in order to reflect the complexity of the world. Bringing together a consortium of voices across a variety of fields, Methods That Matter offers compelling and successful examples of mixed methods research that does just that. Discussing their own endeavors to combine quantitative and qualitative methodologies, the authors invite readers into a conversation about the best designs and practices of mixed methods to stimulate creative ideas and find new pathways of insight. The result is an engaging exploration of a promising approach to the social sciences. --

Writing for Social Scientists

Howard S. Becker
Writing for Social Scientists Book PDF

Author : Howard S. Becker
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 424 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2008-11-15
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780226041377

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Writing for Social Scientists by Howard S. Becker Pdf

Students and researchers all write under pressure, and those pressures—most lamentably, the desire to impress your audience rather than to communicate with them—often lead to pretentious prose, academic posturing, and, not infrequently, writer’s block. Sociologist Howard S. Becker has written the classic book on how to conquer these pressures and simply write. First published nearly twenty years ago, Writing for Social Scientists has become a lifesaver for writers in all fields, from beginning students to published authors. Becker’s message is clear: in order to learn how to write, take a deep breath and then begin writing. Revise. Repeat. It is not always an easy process, as Becker wryly relates. Decades of teaching, researching, and writing have given him plenty of material, and Becker neatly exposes the foibles of academia and its “publish or perish” atmosphere. Wordiness, the passive voice, inserting a “the way in which” when a simple “how” will do—all these mechanisms are a part of the social structure of academic writing. By shrugging off such impediments—or at the very least, putting them aside for a few hours—we can reform our work habits and start writing lucidly without worrying about grades, peer approval, or the “literature.” In this new edition, Becker takes account of major changes in the computer tools available to writers today, and also substantially expands his analysis of how academic institutions create problems for them. As competition in academia grows increasingly heated, Writing for Social Scientists will provide solace to a new generation of frazzled, would-be writers.

Social Science Research

Anol Bhattacherjee
Social Science Research Book PDF

Author : Anol Bhattacherjee
Publisher : CreateSpace
Page : 156 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2012-04-01
Category : Science
ISBN : 1475146124

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Social Science Research by Anol Bhattacherjee Pdf

This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.

Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences

Kristin Luker
Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences Book PDF

Author : Kristin Luker
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 334 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2010-04-10
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780674265493

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Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences by Kristin Luker Pdf

“You might think that dancing doesn’t have a lot to do with social research, and doing social research is probably why you picked this book up in the first place. But trust me. Salsa dancing is a practice as well as a metaphor for a kind of research that will make your life easier and better.” Savvy, witty, and sensible, this unique book is both a handbook for defining and completing a research project, and an astute introduction to the neglected history and changeable philosophy of modern social science. In this volume, Kristin Luker guides novice researchers in: knowing the difference between an area of interest and a research topic; defining the relevant parts of a potentially infinite research literature; mastering sampling, operationalization, and generalization; understanding which research methods best answer your questions; beating writer’s block. Most important, she shows how friendships, non-academic interests, and even salsa dancing can make for a better researcher. “You know about setting the kitchen timer and writing for only an hour, or only 15 minutes if you are feeling particularly anxious. I wrote a fairly large part of this book feeling exactly like that. If I can write an entire book 15 minutes at a time, so can you.”

There is No Such Thing as a Social Science

Phil Hutchinson,Rupert Read,Wes Sharrock
There is No Such Thing as a Social Science Book PDF

Author : Phil Hutchinson,Rupert Read,Wes Sharrock
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 156 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2016-02-17
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317010715

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There is No Such Thing as a Social Science by Phil Hutchinson,Rupert Read,Wes Sharrock Pdf

The death of Peter Winch in 1997 sparked a revived interest in his work with this book arguing his work suffered misrepresentation in both recent literature and in contemporary critiques of his writing. Debates in philosophy and sociology about foundational questions of social ontology and methodology often claim to have adequately incorporated and moved beyond Winch's concerns. Re-establishing a Winchian voice, the authors examine how such contentions involve a failure to understand central themes in Winch's writings and that the issues which occupied him in his Idea of a Social Science and its Relation to Philosophy and later papers remain central to social studies. The volume offers a careful reading of the text in alliance with Wittgensteinian insights and alongside a focus on the nature and results of social thought and inquiry. It draws parallels with other movements in the social studies, notably ethnomethodology, to demonstrate how Winch's central claim is both more significant and more difficult to transcend than sociologists and philosophers have hitherto imagined.

Social Science and Policy Challenges

Georgios Papanagnou
Social Science and Policy Challenges Book PDF

Author : Georgios Papanagnou
Publisher : UNESCO
Page : 301 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2011-01-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9789231042263

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Social Science and Policy Challenges by Georgios Papanagnou Pdf

Producing scientific knowledge that can inform solutions and guide policy-making is one of the most important functions of social science. Nonetheless, if social science is to become more relevant and influential so as to impact on the drawing and execution of policy, certain measures need to be taken to narrow its distance from the policy sphere. This decision is less obvious than it seems. Both research and experience have proved that policy-making is a complex, often sub-rational, interactive process that involves a wide range of actors such as decision makers, bureaucrats, researchers, organized interests, citizen and civil society representatives and research brokers. In addition, social science often needs to defend both its relevance to policy and its own scientific status. Moving away from instrumental visions of the link between social research and policy, this collective volume aims to highlight the more constructed nature of the use of social knowledge.

Quantum Mind and Social Science

Alexander Wendt
Quantum Mind and Social Science Book PDF

Author : Alexander Wendt
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 367 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 2015-04-23
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781107082540

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Quantum Mind and Social Science by Alexander Wendt Pdf

A unique contribution to the understanding of social science, showing the implications of quantum physics for the nature of human society.

Contemporary Society

John A Perry,Erna K Perry
Contemporary Society Book PDF

Author : John A Perry,Erna K Perry
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 496 pages
File Size : 53,8 Mb
Release : 2016-04-14
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317328971

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Contemporary Society by John A Perry,Erna K Perry Pdf

This best-selling text emphasizes why social and cultural changes are the pervasive realities of our time. A key theme of Contemporary Society is that the transition from an industrial to a post-industrial order in today’s world is fraught with difficulties, as was the transition from an agricultural to an industrial order in an earlier era. Within this framework, we can observe the increasing fragmentation of the social order today, which tends to lead people away from community and a common purpose, more often bringing conflict and disunity. Still, countervailing social forces are also at work, providing some stability--some shelter in a sea of change. Ever more, societies are faced with the rapid and transformative power of information technology, which helps propel separate groups of people into a global entity.This introduction to the social sciences shows what the authors have learned from such disciplines as anthropology, geography, history, sociology, psychology, political science, and economics--and how to apply social science approaches to an ever-faster tempo of change. The authors cover family life, interaction with others, racial and ethnic diversity, education, religion, population, environment, and many other topics analyzed in a student-friendly approach. New to this Edition The integration and flow of the text has been improved for better student comprehension. Expanded selection of Web Links to many more sites for student research, many relevant to their interests and entertainment choices Enriched focus on applying social science knowledge to current events (transcending a complete reliance on assumptions from the media) New/expanded coverage on topics throughout the book, including New findings from global warming research and its implications for social life and policy New developments in race relations in an integrated approach throughout many chapters Deepening inequality and the implications that threaten family, education, and student futures—nationally and globally Gender, including new developments in legal gay marriage and transgender Expanded coverage of genetics and the medical potential of human genome sequencing New developments in astrophysics and their potential implications for society Updated Statistics throughout

Laboratory Life

Bruno Latour,Steve Woolgar
Laboratory Life Book PDF

Author : Bruno Latour,Steve Woolgar
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 296 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2013-04-04
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781400820412

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Laboratory Life by Bruno Latour,Steve Woolgar Pdf

This highly original work presents laboratory science in a deliberately skeptical way: as an anthropological approach to the culture of the scientist. Drawing on recent work in literary criticism, the authors study how the social world of the laboratory produces papers and other "texts,"' and how the scientific vision of reality becomes that set of statements considered, for the time being, too expensive to change. The book is based on field work done by Bruno Latour in Roger Guillemin's laboratory at the Salk Institute and provides an important link between the sociology of modern sciences and laboratory studies in the history of science.

Inferior

Angela Saini
Inferior Book PDF

Author : Angela Saini
Publisher : Beacon Press
Page : 226 pages
File Size : 55,8 Mb
Release : 2017-05-30
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780807071700

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Inferior by Angela Saini Pdf

What science has gotten so shamefully wrong about women, and the fight, by both female and male scientists, to rewrite what we thought we knew For hundreds of years it was common sense: women were the inferior sex. Their bodies were weaker, their minds feebler, their role subservient. No less a scientist than Charles Darwin asserted that women were at a lower stage of evolution, and for decades, scientists—most of them male, of course—claimed to find evidence to support this. Whether looking at intelligence or emotion, cognition or behavior, science has continued to tell us that men and women are fundamentally different. Biologists claim that women are better suited to raising families or are, more gently, uniquely empathetic. Men, on the other hand, continue to be described as excelling at tasks that require logic, spatial reasoning, and motor skills. But a huge wave of research is now revealing an alternative version of what we thought we knew. The new woman revealed by this scientific data is as strong, strategic, and smart as anyone else. In Inferior, acclaimed science writer Angela Saini weaves together a fascinating—and sorely necessary—new science of women. As Saini takes readers on a journey to uncover science’s failure to understand women, she finds that we’re still living with the legacy of an establishment that’s just beginning to recover from centuries of entrenched exclusion and prejudice. Sexist assumptions are stubbornly persistent: even in recent years, researchers have insisted that women are choosy and monogamous while men are naturally promiscuous, or that the way men’s and women’s brains are wired confirms long-discredited gender stereotypes. As Saini reveals, however, groundbreaking research is finally rediscovering women’s bodies and minds. Inferior investigates the gender wars in biology, psychology, and anthropology, and delves into cutting-edge scientific studies to uncover a fascinating new portrait of women’s brains, bodies, and role in human evolution.

Social Problems, Social Issues, Social Science

James Wright
Social Problems Social Issues Social Science Book PDF

Author : James Wright
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 362 pages
File Size : 48,6 Mb
Release : 2017-07-05
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781351489751

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Social Problems, Social Issues, Social Science by James Wright Pdf

Sociology has tackled some of the most formidable problems that confront contemporary society: inequality, homelessness, violence, gender, and many more. Sociologists assert that hypotheses can be formulated and tested against empirical evidence, that faulty viewpoints can be uncovered and discarded, and that plausible theory can be distinguished from mere ideology. This collection was written over a span of forty-four years and is presented in the belief that sociology is a science.In Social Problems, Social Issues, Social Science, James D. Wright presents his research on some of the social issues that have most vexed America: homelessness, addiction, divorce, minimum wage, and gun control, among others. Starting with essays first published in the flagship journal Society, Wright offers readers a foundational look at specific social problems and the methods sociologists have used to study them. He then provides an up-to-date re-examination of each issue, analysing the changes that have occurred over time and how sociologists have responded to it.This book is both a retrospective on the field and on one scholar's life and work. Using his own experience in researching and writing about America's most trenchant social issues, Wright describes the evolution of the methods and theory used by social scientists to understand and, ultimately, to confront America's most troublesome social problems.

Cogs and Monsters

Diane Coyle
Cogs and Monsters Book PDF

Author : Diane Coyle
Publisher : Princeton University Press
Page : 272 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2023-04-11
Category : Business & Economics
ISBN : 9780691231044

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Cogs and Monsters by Diane Coyle Pdf

How economics needs to change to keep pace with the twenty-first century and the digital economy Digital technology, big data, big tech, machine learning, and AI are revolutionizing both the tools of economics and the phenomena it seeks to measure, understand, and shape. In Cogs and Monsters, Diane Coyle explores the enormous problems—but also opportunities—facing economics today and examines what it must do to help policymakers solve the world’s crises, from pandemic recovery and inequality to slow growth and the climate emergency. Mainstream economics, Coyle says, still assumes people are “cogs”—self-interested, calculating, independent agents interacting in defined contexts. But the digital economy is much more characterized by “monsters”—untethered, snowballing, and socially influenced unknowns. What is worse, by treating people as cogs, economics is creating its own monsters, leaving itself without the tools to understand the new problems it faces. In response, Coyle asks whether economic individualism is still valid in the digital economy, whether we need to measure growth and progress in new ways, and whether economics can ever be objective, since it influences what it analyzes. Just as important, the discipline needs to correct its striking lack of diversity and inclusion if it is to be able to offer new solutions to new problems. Filled with original insights, Cogs and Monsters offers a road map for how economics can adapt to the rewiring of society, including by digital technologies, and realize its potential to play a hugely positive role in the twenty-first century.

Smarter Than You Think

Clive Thompson
Smarter Than You Think Book PDF

Author : Clive Thompson
Publisher : Penguin
Page : 352 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2013-09-12
Category : Technology & Engineering
ISBN : 9781101638712

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Smarter Than You Think by Clive Thompson Pdf

A revelatory and timely look at how technology boosts our cognitive abilities—making us smarter, more productive, and more creative than ever It’s undeniable—technology is changing the way we think. But is it for the better? Amid a chorus of doomsayers, Clive Thompson delivers a resounding “yes.” In Smarter Than You Think, Thompson shows that every technological innovation—from the written word to the printing press to the telegraph—has provoked the very same anxieties that plague us today. We panic that life will never be the same, that our attentions are eroding, that culture is being trivialized. But, as in the past, we adapt—learning to use the new and retaining what is good of the old. Smarter Than You Think embraces and extols this transformation, presenting an exciting vision of the present and the future.