Download or read book The Emerging Consensus in Social Systems Theory written by Kenneth C. Bausch and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 551 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Emerging Consensus of Social Systems Theory Bausch summarizes the works of over 30 major systemic theorists. He then goes on to show the converging areas of consensus among these out-standing thinkers. Bausch categorizes the social aspects of current systemic thinking as falling into five broadly thematic areas: designing social systems, the structure of the social world, communication, cognition and epistemology. These five areas are foundational for a theoretic and practical systemic synthesis. They were topics of contention in a historic debate between Habermas and Luhmann in the early 1970's. They continue to be contentious topics within the study of social philosophy. Since the 1970's, systemic thinking has taken great strides in the areas of mathematics, physics, biology, psychology, and sociology. This book presents a spectrum of those theoretical advances. It synthesizes what various strains of contemporary systems science have to say about social processes and assesses the quality of the resulting integrated explanations. Bausch gives a detailed study of the works of many present-day systems theorists, both in general terms, and with regard to social processes. He then creates and validates integrated representations of their thoughts with respect to his own thematic classifications. He provides a background of systemic thinking from an historical context, as well as detailed studies of developments in sociological, cognitive and evolutionary theory. This book presents a coherent, dynamic model of a self-organizing world. It proposes a creative and ethical method of decision-making and design. It makes explicit the relations between structure and process in the realms of knowledge and being. The new methodology that evolves in this book allows us to deal with enormous complexity, and to relate ideas so as to draw out previously unsuspected conclusions and syntheses. Therein lies the elegance and utility of this model.
Download or read book Experts and Consensus in Social Science written by Carlo Martini and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-09-11 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together the research of philosophers, sociologists, and social scientists. It examines those areas of scientific practice where reliance on the subjective judgment of experts and practitioners is the main source of useful knowledge to address and possibly, bring solutions to social problems. A common phenomenon in applications of science is that objective evidence does not point to a single answer or solution, to a problem. Reliance on subjective judgment, then, becomes necessary, despite the known fact that hunches, even those of putative experts, often provide information that is not very accurate, and that experts are prone to fallacies and biases. The book looks at how experts reach consensus in the social sciences, and which experts are relevant to which problems. It aims to answer many questions, the main one being: Can we start building a normative theory of expertise on the basis of the evidence that social scientists, sociologists and philosophers have uncovered?
Download or read book Rational Consensus in Science and Society written by Keith Lehrer and published by Springer. This book was released on 1981 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: TItis book is the joint project of a philosopher, Lehrer, and a mathematician, Wagner. The book is, therefore, divided into a first part written by Lehrer, which is primarily philosophical, and a second part written by Wagner that is primarily formal. The authors were, however, influenced by each other throughout. Our book articulates a theory of rational consensus in science and society. The theory is applied to politics, ethics, science, and language. We begin our exposition with an elementary mathematical model of consensus developed by Lehrer in a series of articles [1976a, 1976b, 1977, 1978]. Chapter 3 contains material from [1978]. Lehrer formulated the elementary model when he was a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Be havioral Sciences, Stanford, in 1973 with the invaluable mathematical assist of Kit Fine, Gerald Kramer and Lionel McKenzie. In the summer of ance 1977, Lehrer and Wagner met at the Center in a Summer Seminar on Freedom and Causality supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Wagner read the manuscript of Lehrer [1978] and subsequently solved some mathematical problems of the elementary model. After discussions of philosophical prob lems associated with that model, Wagner developed the foundations for the extended model. These results were reported in Wagner [1978, 1981a].
Download or read book Society s Choices written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1995-03-27 with total page 560 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Breakthroughs in biomedicine often lead to new life-giving treatments but may also raise troubling, even life-and-death, quandaries. Society's Choices discusses ways for people to handle today's bioethics issues in the context of America's unique history and cultureâ€"and from the perspectives of various interest groups. The book explores how Americans have grappled with specific aspects of bioethics through commission deliberations, programs by organizations, and other mechanisms and identifies criteria for evaluating the outcomes of these efforts. The committee offers recommendations on the role of government and professional societies, the function of commissions and institutional review boards, and bioethics in health professional education and research. The volume includes a series of 12 superb background papers on public moral discourse, mechanisms for handling social and ethical dilemmas, and other specific areas of controversy by well-known experts Ronald Bayer, Martin Benjamin, Dan W. Brock, Baruch A. Brody, H. Alta Charo, Lawrence Gostin, Bradford H. Gray, Kathi E. Hanna, Elizabeth Heitman, Thomas Nagel, Steven Shapin, and Charles M. Swezey.
Download or read book A New Dictionary of the Social Sciences written by G. Mitchell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed especially to meet the needs of beginners in all the social sciences, "A New Dictionary of the Social Sciences" follows its highly successful distinguished predecessor initially issued as "A Dictionary of Sociology" first published in 1968. Many of the entries have been revised and updated to keep abreast of the proliferation in the vocabulary of the social sciences. The volume remains on excellent single source for definitions in social research. The entries include social psychological terms, terms in social and cultural anthropology, terms common to political science, social administration and social work. In the choice of words, a generous definition of social science was employed, making the dictionary a very useful reference source for all beginners in the social sciences. Some terms are explained quite briefly while others are given lengthy treatment, according to the further assumptions that some sociological terms can imply. Thus, long entries are given on words, such as authority, consensus, phenomenology, role, social stratification, structuralism, whereas short and succinct entries suffice for words such, as agnate, eidos, or mores. A number of short biographical sketches are also included. The contributors are all scholars working in universities, predominantly in the United Kingdom and the United States. More than a glossary, "A New Dictionary of the Social Sciences" helps the student understand some of the theoretical considerations underlying the use of sociological terms, as well as something of their history, and therefore resembles an encyclopaedia in its scope and depth of information.
Download or read book Social Sciences written by and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Covid Consensus written by Toby Green and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-12-01 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the onset of the pandemic, progressive opinion has been clear that hard lockdowns are the best way to preserve life, while only irresponsible and destructive conservatives like Trump and Bolsonaro oppose them. But why should liberals favor lockdowns, when all the social science research shows that those who suffer most are the economically disadvantaged, without access to good internet or jobs that can be done remotely; that the young will pay the price of the pandemic in future taxes, job prospects, and erosion of public services, when they are already disadvantaged in comparison in terms of pension prospects, paying university fees, and state benefits; and that Covid's impact on the Global South is catastrophic, with the UN predicting potentially tens of millions of deaths from hunger and declaring that decades of work in health and education is being reversed. Toby Green analyses the contradictions emerging through this response as part of a broader crisis in Western thought, where conservative thought is also riven by contradictions, with lockdown policies creating just the sort of big state that it abhors. These contradictions mirror underlying irreconcilable beliefs in society that are now bursting into the open, with devastating consequences for the global poor.
Download or read book Scholarly Book Reviewing in the Social Sciences and Humanities written by Ylva Lindholm-Romantschuk and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 1998-01-26 with total page 164 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study explores the flow of information within and among academic disciplines in the social sciences and humanities through analyses of the patterns of scholarly book reviewing. An elite sample of scholarly monographs published by university presses between 1971 and 1990 was used. Beginning with Derek de Solla Price, the measurement of communication within the disciplines of science has been ongoing. In the present book that field of inquiry is summarized and provides a basis for examining the flow of information in the social sciences and humanities.
Download or read book Conflict and Consensus written by Bernadette Hayes and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2005-12-01 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study uses a wide range of survey data to examine present-day differences in identity and political allegiance between Catholics and Protestants on the island of Ireland but also to show the extensive cultural similarities that cut across the Catholic-Protestant divide.
Download or read book The Consensus conflict Debate written by Thomas J. Bernard and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1983 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few aspects of American military history have been as vigorously debated as Harry Truman's decision to use atomic bombs against Japan. In this carefully crafted volume, Michael Kort describes the wartime circumstances and thinking that form the context for the decision to use these weapons, surveys the major debates related to that decision, and provides a comprehensive collection of key primary source documents that illuminate the behavior of the United States and Japan during the closing days of World War II. Kort opens with a summary of the debate over Hiroshima as it has evolved since 1945. He then provides a historical overview of thye events in question, beginning with the decision and program to build the atomic bomb. Detailing the sequence of events leading to Japan's surrender, he revisits the decisive battles of the Pacific War and the motivations of American and Japanese leaders. Finally, Kort examines ten key issues in the discussion of Hiroshima and guides readers to relevant primary source documents, scholarly books, and articles.
Download or read book Relativism and the Social Sciences written by Ernest Gellner and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1987-02-26 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Considers human diversity and change and rejects the usual solutions to problems of relativism. Presents a new mode of inquiry in its stead a mixture of philosophy, history, and anthropology that appears to be more meaningful.
Download or read book Control Balance written by Charles R Tittle and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-02-02 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A major contribution to the field of crime/deviance, this volume by noted criminologist Charles R. Tittle puts forth an integrated theory of deviance—control balance. Its central premise is that the total amount of control people are subjected to, relative to the control they can exercise, will affect the probability and type of their deviant behavior. In developing control balance, Tittle critically reviews other general theories such as anomie, Marxian conflict, social control, differential association/social learning, labelling, and routine activities and offers reasons why those theories are insufficient. Using real-world examples to illustrate his argument, he contends that deviance results from the convergence of four variables, each of which represents an interactive nexus of several inputs, including most prominently a control imbalance. The variables are predisposition, motivation, opportunity, and constraint. Control balance theory also explains six basic types of deviance, ranging from predation, defiance, and submissiveness on one end of a control ratio continuum to exploitation, plunder, and decadence on the other. Tittle conceives of control balance as a continuation, or temporary culmination, of the collective efforts of crime/deviance scholars who have gone before, presenting it as a vehicle for trying to achieve a fully adequate general theory of deviance.
Download or read book Methods of Sustainability Research in the Social Sciences written by Frances Fahy and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2013-01-21 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainability is a key concept used by social scientists interested in interactions between human society and the environment. This text offers a systematic and critical review of established and emerging methodological approaches, as well as tools for the integrated investigation of sustainability questions. Recognising the significance of scale for sustainability efforts and measurement, its scope ranges from the local to the global. Divided into five sections: Part I: examines the key challenges inherent to social scientific sustainability research, focusing in particular on methodological questions that arise from recent efforts towards greater disciplinary integration. Part II: discusses methodologies aimed at the investigation of attitudes and behaviour observable at the local level - from families and households to individual organisations within communities. Part III: focuses on comparative sustainability research across different levels of socio-political organisation - from cities and regions to nation-states. Part IV: covers recent developments which recognise the significance of time for sustainability research and which offer innovative methodological approaches that focus on life events and long-term outcome. Part V: offers a critical assessment of current and future trends in social-scientific sustainability researc. Bringing together contributions from international social scientists, this is the resource for academics and practitioners interested in sustainability research. It will be a core teaching text for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in sustainability and sustainable development, geography, environmental sociology and the environmental sciences.
Download or read book A New Dictionary of the Social Sciences written by G. Mitchell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-07-05 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Designed especially to meet the needs of beginners in all the social sciences, "A New Dictionary of the Social Sciences" follows its highly successful distinguished predecessor initially issued as "A Dictionary of Sociology" first published in 1968. Many of the entries have been revised and updated to keep abreast of the proliferation in the vocabulary of the social sciences. The volume remains on excellent single source for definitions in social research. The entries include social psychological terms, terms in social and cultural anthropology, terms common to political science, social administration and social work. In the choice of words, a generous definition of social science was employed, making the dictionary a very useful reference source for all beginners in the social sciences. Some terms are explained quite briefly while others are given lengthy treatment, according to the further assumptions that some sociological terms can imply. Thus, long entries are given on words, such as authority, consensus, phenomenology, role, social stratification, structuralism, whereas short and succinct entries suffice for words such, as agnate, eidos, or mores. A number of short biographical sketches are also included. The contributors are all scholars working in universities, predominantly in the United Kingdom and the United States. More than a glossary, "A New Dictionary of the Social Sciences" helps the student understand some of the theoretical considerations underlying the use of sociological terms, as well as something of their history, and therefore resembles an encyclopaedia in its scope and depth of information.
Download or read book Social Science for What written by Alice O'Connor and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2007-04-02 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much like today, the early twentieth century was a period of rising economic inequality and political polarization in America. But it was also an era of progressive reform—a time when the Russell Sage Foundation and other philanthropic organizations were established to promote social science as a way to solve the crises of industrial capitalism. In Social Science for What? Alice O'Connor relates the history of philanthropic social science, exploring its successes and challenges over the years, and asking how these foundations might continue to promote progressive social change in our own politically divided era. The philanthropic foundations established in the early 1900s focused on research which, while intended to be objective, was also politically engaged. In addition to funding social science research, in its early years the Russell Sage Foundation also supported social work and advocated reforms on issues from child welfare to predatory lending. This reformist agenda shaped the foundation's research priorities and methods. The Foundation's landmark Pittsburgh Survey of wage labor, conducted in 1907-1908, involved not only social scientists but leaders of charities, social workers, and progressive activists, and was designed not simply to answer empirical questions, but to reframe the public discourse about industrial labor. After World War II, many philanthropic foundations disengaged from political struggles and shifted their funding toward more value-neutral, academic social inquiry, in the belief that disinterested research would yield more effective public policies. Consequently, these foundations were caught off guard in the 1970s and 1980s by the emergence of a network of right-wing foundations, which was successful in promoting an openly ideological agenda. In order to counter the political in-roads made by conservative organizations, O'Connor argues that progressive philanthropic research foundations should look to the example of their founders. While continuing to support the social science research that has contributed so much to American society over the past 100 years, they should be more direct about the values that motivate their research. In this way, they will help foster a more democratic dialogue on important social issues by using empirical knowledge to engage fundamentally ethical concerns about rising inequality. O'Connor's message is timely: public-interest social science faces unprecedented challenges in this era of cultural warfare, as both liberalism and science itself have come under assault. Social Science for What? is a thought-provoking critique of the role of social science in improving society and an indispensable guide to how progressives can reassert their voice in the national political debate. A Volume in the Russell Sage Foundation's Centennial Series
Download or read book Virtue Ethics in the Conduct and Governance of Social Science Research written by Nathan Emmerich and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2018-04-06 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited collection focuses on the virtue theory and the ethics of social science research.
Download or read book Social Science Research written by Anol Bhattacherjee and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
