The Social Scientist As Public Intellectual

Author : Charles F. Gattone
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Page : 190 pages
File Size : 51,9 Mb
Release : 2006-03-14
Category : Education
ISBN : 9781461645641

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The Social Scientist as Public Intellectual by Charles F. Gattone Pdf

What is the role of the social scientist in public affairs? How have changes in the structure of the university system and the culture of academia reshaped the opportunities and constraints facing contemporary scholars? The Social Scientist as Public Intellectual addresses these and other questions by reviewing the ideas of seminal thinkers in Europe and the United States, and relating their conclusions to today's world. In this book, Charles Gattone examines the analyses of Max Weber, Thorstein Veblen, Karl Mannheim, Joseph Schumpeter, C. Wright Mills, John Kenneth Galbraith, and Pierre Bourdieu, tracing their perspectives through two World wars, the Cold War, and into the present. Gattone situates the ideas of these authors in historical context, showing the ways the realities of their time - fascism , totalitarianism, the rise of bureaucratic institutions, and the expansion of industrial democracy - informed their assessments regarding the place of the intellectual in the political realm. He brings their work into the current context, addressing the difficulties involved in bridging the gap between the ideas of scholarly inquiry and the practical realities of politics, and examining the ways newer factors such as the mass media relate to the character and trajectories of popular sentiment. Gattone argues that although political and economic institutions continue to influence the course of academic knowledge, opportunities remain for social scientists to act independently and develop insight that can ultimately be of value to a wide spectrum of the population in the modern order. Rather than follow the habit of striving to satisfy the narrow demands of institutional supporters, Gattone suggests that social scientists have the potential to approach their work from the standpoint of a broader orientation, and address social issues as public intellectuals.

Author : Charles F. Gattone
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 190 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2006
Category : Education
ISBN : 0742537935

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The Social Scientist as Public Intellectual by Charles F. Gattone Pdf

In The Social Scientist as Public Intellectual, Charles Gattone addresses the question of the public role of the social scientist by reviewing the work of several key social thinkers, from Max Weber to Pierre Bourdieu. Drawing on the analyses of these scholars, Gattone argues that although political and economic institutions continue to influence the course of academic knowledge, opportunities remain for social scientists to act independently of these constraints, and approach their work as public intellectuals.

Author : Christian Fleck
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 292 pages
File Size : 44,5 Mb
Release : 2016-05-23
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317114888

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Intellectuals and their Publics by Christian Fleck Pdf

How do intellectuals engage with and affect their publics? What is the role of the public intellectual in the new age of political uncertainties? What challenges face female intellectuals and those speaking from an ethnic, national or class position? This exciting collection responds to these questions by offering a broad-ranging account of the changing role of intellectuals in public life. The volume opens with provocative essays on the idea and role of the public intellectual from Alexander, Evans and Zulaika. Chapters from Rabinbach on intellectuals' responses to totalitarianism, Outhwaite on what it means to be a European intellectual, and Auer’s discussion of the dissident intellectual in the collapse of communism lead onto vigorous debate of earlier points discussed through specific intellectual case studies from Tocqueville to Hayek. Intellectuals and their Publics will attract a broad readership interested in the role of the intellectual, with particular appeal for sociologists, political theorists and historians of ideas.

Author : Sven Eliaeson,Ragnvald Kalleberg
Publisher : Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Page : 315 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2009-03-26
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781443807173

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Academics as Public Intellectuals by Sven Eliaeson,Ragnvald Kalleberg Pdf

As public intellectuals academics formulate specialized knowledge to become understandable and relevant for people outside of the specialty. There are two main forms of such intellectual activity: dissemination and debating. Scientific knowledge is a cultural value in its own right and also of importance in public discourse. Due to the complexity of the challenges facing modern societies the intellectual role of individual academics and scholarly institutions is increasingly important with mass education and new media techniques expanding the public sphere. It has become more important that specialists popularize also for specialists in other fields. Challenges such as climate change or social integration requires knowledgeable citizens and broad public discourses integrating specialized knowledge from several disciplines. Contemporary challenges in Western Europe, Scandinavia and the US are discussed. The historical perspectives are followed back to early Modernity. The cases include contributions on Holberg, the Myrdals and Boas. There are contributions on the recent transformations “East of the Elbe” and the challenges facing scholars in Turkey and India. The main focus of the book is on social scientists but the issues discussed are of general interest for all kinds of academics and for people interested in the cultural and political relevance of science.

Author : Michael C. Desch
Publisher : University of Notre Dame Pess
Page : 418 pages
File Size : 50,7 Mb
Release : 2016-11-15
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 9780268100278

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Public Intellectuals in the Global Arena by Michael C. Desch Pdf

What is a public intellectual? Where are they to be found? What accounts for the lament today that public intellectuals are either few in number or, worse, irrelevant? While there is a small literature on the role of public intellectuals, it is organized around various thinkers rather than focusing on different countries or the unique opportunities and challenges inherent in varied disciplines or professions. In Public Intellectuals in the Global Arena, Michael C. Desch has gathered a group of contributors to offer a timely and far-reaching reassessment of the role of public intellectuals in a variety of Western and non-Western settings. The contributors delineate the centrality of historical consciousness, philosophical self-understanding, and ethical imperatives for any intelligentsia who presume to speak the truth to power. The first section provides in-depth studies of the role of public intellectuals in a variety of countries or regions, including the United States, Latin America, China, and the Islamic world. The essays in the second section take up the question of why public intellectuals vary so widely across different disciplines. These chapters chronicle changes in the disciplines of philosophy and economics, changes that "have combined to dethrone the former and elevate the latter as the preeminent homes of public intellectuals in the academy." Also included are chapters that consider the evolving roles of the natural scientist, the former diplomat, and the blogger as public intellectuals. The final section provides concluding perspectives about the duties of public intellectuals in the twenty-first century.

Author : Dolan Cummings
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 193 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2013-09-27
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781136868887

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The Changing Role of the Public Intellectual by Dolan Cummings Pdf

Ideas can define and transform society, but how healthy is intellectual life today? In a period when Big Brother refers not to George Orwell but to a reality TV show, and when bright young things are developing gameshow formats rather than scribbling essays; when thinkers join think tanks to design short-term government policy rather than reflecting on and challenging the status quo, and when the ever growing number of graduates seem more interested in job prospects than academic endeavour, is intellectual life in terminal decline? This book looks at the idea of the public intellectual, considering whether such thinkers are becoming an endangered species. It also looks at the legacy of relativism and ethical doubts about the pursuit of knowledge, and the effect of such developments on intellectual life. The final section considers the expansion of higher education and the changing role of the academic. Taken together, the essays in this collection form a comprehensive overview of the intellectual climate today, and the possibilities for the future. This volume was previously published as a special issue of the journal Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy (CRISPP).

Author : David Haney
Publisher : Temple University Press
Page : 297 pages
File Size : 41,9 Mb
Release : 2008-01-28
Category : History
ISBN : 9781592137152

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The Americanization of Social Science by David Haney Pdf

A highly readable introduction to and overview of the postwar social sciences in the United States, The Americanization of Social Science explores a critical period in the evolution of American sociology’s professional identity from the late 1940s through the early 1960s. David Paul Haney contends that during this time leading sociologists encouraged a professional secession from public engagement in the name of establishing the discipline’s scientific integrity. According to Haney, influential practitioners encouraged a willful withdrawal from public sociology by separating their professional work from public life. He argues that this separation diminished sociologists’ capacity for conveying their findings to wider publics, especially given their ambivalence towards the mass media, as witnessed by the professional estrangement that scholars like David Riesman and C. Wright Mills experienced as their writing found receptive lay audiences. He argues further that this sense of professional insularity has inhibited sociology’s participation in the national discussion about social issues to the present day.

Author : Christian Fleck
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 340 pages
File Size : 49,6 Mb
Release : 2016-04-22
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781317108856

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Knowledge for Whom? by Christian Fleck Pdf

This ground-breaking volume is a follow-up to Intellectuals and Their Publics. In contrast to the earlier book, which was mainly concerned with the activity of intellectuals and how it relates to the public, this volume analyses what happens when sociology and sociologists engage with or serve various publics. More specifically, this problem will be studied from the following three angles: How does one become a public sociologist and prominent intellectual in the first place? (Part I) How complex and complicated are the stories of institutions and professional associations when they take on a public role or tackle a major social or political problem? (Part II) How can one investigate the relationship between individual sociologists and intellectuals and their various publics? (Part III) This book will be of interest to academics and students working in the fields of the sociology of knowledge and ideas, the history of social sciences, intellectual history, cultural sociology, and cultural studies.

Author : Richard M. Zinman,Jerry Weinberger,Arthur M. Melzer
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2004-09-01
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9780585463223

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The Public Intellectual by Richard M. Zinman,Jerry Weinberger,Arthur M. Melzer Pdf

Whether intellectuals are counter-cultural escapists corrupting the young or secular prophets leading us to prosperity, they are a fixture of modern political life. In The Public Intellectual: Between Philosophy and Politics, Arthur M. Melzer, Jerry Weinberger, and M. Richard Zinman bring together a wide variety of noted scholars to discuss the characteristics, nature, and role of public thinkers. By looking at scholarly life in the West, this work explores the relationship between thought and action, ideas and events, reason and history.

Author : Richard A. Posner
Publisher : Harvard University Press
Page : 465 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2009-07-01
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9780674042278

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Public Intellectuals by Richard A. Posner Pdf

In this timely book, the first comprehensive study of the modern American public intellectual--that individual who speaks to the public on issues of political or ideological moment--Richard Posner charts the decline of a venerable institution that included worthies from Socrates to John Dewey. With the rapid growth of the media in recent years, highly visible forums for discussion have multiplied, while greater academic specialization has yielded a growing number of narrowly trained scholars. Posner tracks these two trends to their inevitable intersection: a proliferation of modern academics commenting on topics outside their ken. The resulting scene--one of off-the-cuff pronouncements, erroneous predictions, and ignorant policy proposals--compares poorly with the performance of earlier public intellectuals, largely nonacademics whose erudition and breadth of knowledge were well suited to public discourse. Leveling a balanced attack on liberal and conservative pundits alike, Posner describes the styles and genres, constraints and incentives, of the activity of public intellectuals. He identifies a market for this activity--one with recognizable patterns and conventions but an absence of quality controls. And he offers modest proposals for improving the performance of this market--and the quality of public discussion in America today. This paperback edition contains a new preface and and a new epilogue.

Author : Stephen Brooks,Alain G. Gagnon
Publisher : Praeger
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 53,6 Mb
Release : 1990-03-09
Category : Political Science
ISBN : STANFORD:36105038647389

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Social Scientists, Policy, and the State by Stephen Brooks,Alain G. Gagnon Pdf

This collection of original essays focuses on the relationship of social scientists to the state and public policy in the industrialized democracies. The comparative approach of this book provides the basis for broader generalization about the linkages between social science and social scientist and the modern state and political power. Social Scientists, Policy, and the State brings fresh analysis to specific issues that are important to a more general understanding of these linkages. Part I examines the ways in which social scientists participate in the policy-making process. Part II looks at the uses made of ideas generated by social scientific research and at variations within and relations between the critical and expert roles of the social scientist. Part III discusses the factors that have contributed to change in the relationship of social scientists to power and to the state. This section also includes a detailed discussion about the cultural and structural conditions that facilitate or block the political influence of social scientists. This book should have equal appeal to teachers and researchers in the fields of comparative politics, policy making, and the sociology of knowledge.

Author : Charles F. Gattone
Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
Page : 143 pages
File Size : 44,9 Mb
Release : 2020-12-08
Category : Social Science
ISBN : 9781793631459

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A Balanced Epistemological Orientation for the Social Sciences by Charles F. Gattone Pdf

A Balanced Epistemological Orientation for the Social Sciences challenges social researchers to rethink the epistemological assumptions grounding their work. It reviews the strengths and weaknesses of four salient epistemological orientations in the field – positivism, relativism, interpretivism, and intersubjectivism – to identify the characteristics of a theoretically-informed epistemology for social science. Relying on such an epistemology means seeking a deeper understanding of the social world without losing sight of the constructed nature of one’s conceptual frames. It involves adopting a reflexive position with regard to the norms and traditions in one’s area of specialization and in the field as a whole. Epistemologically-balanced social research is neither the dispassionate gathering of factual information, nor the elaboration of universal assessments formed on the basis of armchair speculation. It involves engaging in inquiry in an independent manner and being aware of the perspectival character of the claims being made in the attempt to shed new light on social phenomena. The caliber of social science can be elevated when researchers recognize the symbolic nature of their work and the significance of their conclusions in the larger social order.

Author : Christian Fleck,Andreas Hess,E. Stina Lyon
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 52,7 Mb
Release : 2008
Category : Intellectual life
ISBN : 131558915X

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Intellectuals and Their Publics by Christian Fleck,Andreas Hess,E. Stina Lyon Pdf

Author : Massimiano Bucchi,Brian Trench
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 340 pages
File Size : 40,5 Mb
Release : 2008-06-03
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781134170135

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Handbook of Public Communication of Science and Technology by Massimiano Bucchi,Brian Trench Pdf

Comprehensive yet accessible, this key Handbook provides an up-to-date overview of the fast growing and increasingly important area of ‘public communication of science and technology’, from both research and practical perspectives. As well as introducing the main issues, arenas and professional perspectives involved, it presents the findings of earlier research and the conclusions previously drawn. Unlike most existing books on this topic, this unique volume couples an overview of the practical problems faced by practitioners with a thorough review of relevant literature and research. The practical Handbook format ensures it is a student-friendly resource, but its breadth of scope and impressive contributors means that it is also ideal for practitioners and professionals working in the field. Combining the contributions of different disciplines (media and journalism studies, sociology and history of science), the perspectives of different geographical and cultural contexts, and by selecting key contributions from appropriate and well-respected authors, this original text provides an interdisciplinary as well as a global approach to public communication of science and technology.

Author : Stella Maile,David J. Griffiths
Publisher : Policy Press
Page : 266 pages
File Size : 46,6 Mb
Release : 2014
Category : Political Science
ISBN : 9781447306863

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Public Engagement and Social Science by Stella Maile,David J. Griffiths Pdf

Drawing on social science conversations at a lively café in Bristol, this highly original book explores the value of public engagement in a wider social science context. The chapters range from themes such as the dialogic character of the social sciences, pragmatism in responses, and the underpinnings of managerial approaches to the restructuring of higher education. The first part reflects upon the different social and political inflections of public engagement. It is followed by chapters based upon talks at the café that were concerned with public engagement and the contribution of social science to a reflexive understanding of the dilemmas and practices of daily life. Together, the contributors offer a refreshing look at the role of social science in the societies it examines.--