Download or read book On the Limits of Social Science Theory written by Oswald Werner and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-10-26 with total page 20 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No detailed description available for "On the Limits of Social Science Theory".
Download or read book The Limits of Social Science written by Martyn Hammersley and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2014-06-16 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What forms of knowledge can social science claim to produce? Does it employ causal analysis, and if so what does this entail? What role should values play in the work of social scientists? These are the questions addressed in this book. They are closely interrelated, and the answers offered here challenge many currently prevailing assumptions. They carry implications both for research practice, quantitative or qualitative, and for the public claims that social scientists make about the value of their work. The arguments underpinning this challenge to conventional wisdom are laid out in detail in the first half of the book. In later chapters their implications are explored for two substantive areas of intrinsic importance: the study of social mobility and educational inequalities; and explanations for urban riots, notably those that took place in London and other English cities in the summer of 2011.
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.
Download or read book Unthinking Social Science written by Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 310 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Immanuel Wallerstein develops a thorough-going critique of the legacy of nineteenth-century social science for social thought in the new millennium. We have to "unthink"-radically revise and discard-many of the presumptions that still remain the foundation of dominant perspectives today. Once considered liberating, these notions are now barriers to a clear understanding of our social world. They include, for example, ideas built into the concept of "development." In place of such a notion, Wallerstein stresses transformations in time and space. Geography and chronology should not be regarded as external influences upon social transformations but crucial to what such transformation actually is. Unthinking Social Science applies the ideas thus elaborated to a variety of theoretical areas and historical problems.
Download or read book Critical Social Science written by Brian Fay and published by Ithaca, N.Y. : Cornell University Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Limitations of Social Research written by M.D. Shipman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-06-03 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Does the evidence reflect the reality under investigation?' This is just one of the important questions Marten Shipman asks in the fourth edition of his highly successful book, The Limitations of Social Research. Substantially revised and up-dated it probes not only the technical stages of research, but also its assumptions, procedures and dissemination.
Download or read book Realism and Social Science written by R. Andrew Sayer and published by SAGE. This book was released on 2000-02-11 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Realism and Social Science offers an authoritative guide to critical realism and an assessment of its virtues in comparison with other leading traditions in social science. It is illustrated throughout with relevant and accessible examples.
Download or read book Complexity Theory and the Social Sciences written by David Byrne and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-11 with total page 343 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For the past two decades, ‘complexity’ has informed a range of work across the social sciences. There are diverse schools of complexity thinking, and authors have used these ideas in a multiplicity of ways, from health inequalities to the organization of large scale firms. Some understand complexity as emergence from the rule-based interactions of simple agents and explore it through agent-based modelling. Others argue against such ‘restricted complexity’ and for the development of case-based narratives deploying a much wider set of approaches and techniques. Major social theorists have been reinterpreted through a complexity lens and the whole methodological programme of the social sciences has been recast in complexity terms. In four parts, this book seeks to establish ‘the state of the art’ of complexity-informed social science as it stands now, examining: the key issues in complexity theory the implications of complexity theory for social theory the methodology and methods of complexity theory complexity within disciplines and fields. It also points ways forward towards a complexity-informed social science for the twenty-first century, investigating the argument for a post-disciplinary, ‘open’ social science. Byrne and Callaghan consider how this might be developed as a programme of teaching and research within social science. This book will be particularly relevant for, and interesting to, students and scholars of social research methods, social theory, business and organization studies, health, education, urban studies and development studies.
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Multimethod and Mixed Methods Research Inquiry written by Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-06-04 with total page 777 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Offering a variety of innovative methods and tools, The Oxford Handbook of Multimethod and Mixed Methods Research Inquiry provides the most comprehensive and up-to-date presentation on multi- and mixed-methods research available. Written in clear and concise language by leading scholars in the field, it enhances and disrupts traditional ways of asking and addressing complex research questions. Topics include an overview of theory, paradigms, and scientific inquiry; a guide to conducting a multi- and mixed-methods research study from start to finish; current uses of multi- and mixed-methods research across academic disciplines and research fields; the latest technologies and how they can be incorporated into study design; and a presentation of multiple perspectives on the key remaining debates. Each chapter in the volume is structured to include state-of-the-art research examples that cross a range of disciplines and interdisciplinary research settings. In addition, the Handbook offers multiple quantitative and qualitative theoretical and interdisciplinary visions and praxis. Researchers, faculty, graduate students, and policy makers will appreciate the exceptional, timely, and critical coverage in this Handbook, which deftly addresses the interdisciplinary and complex questions that a diverse set of research communities are facing today.
Download or read book Making Social Science Matter written by Bent Flyvbjerg and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-01-15 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New approach demonstrating how social science can be successful, focusing on context, values, and power.
Download or read book Social Sciences as Sorcery written by Stanislav Andreski and published by Saint Martin's Griffin. This book was released on 1974 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Social Theory after the Internet written by Ralph Schroeder and published by UCL Press. This book was released on 2018-01-04 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The internet has fundamentally transformed society in the past 25 years, yet existing theories of mass or interpersonal communication do not work well in understanding a digital world. Nor has this understanding been helped by disciplinary specialization and a continual focus on the latest innovations. Ralph Schroeder takes a longer-term view, synthesizing perspectives and findings from various social science disciplines in four countries: the United States, Sweden, India and China. His comparison highlights, among other observations, that smartphones are in many respects more important than PC-based internet uses. Social Theory after the Internet focuses on everyday uses and effects of the internet, including information seeking and big data, and explains how the internet has gone beyond traditional media in, for example, enabling Donald Trump and Narendra Modi to come to power. Schroeder puts forward a sophisticated theory of the role of the internet, and how both technological and social forces shape its significance. He provides a sweeping and penetrating study, theoretically ambitious and at the same time always empirically grounded.The book will be of great interest to students and scholars of digital media and society, the internet and politics, and the social implications of big data.
Download or read book The Social Sciences and Rationality written by Hudson Meadwell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-10-19 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In recent decades, rational choice theory has emerged as the single most powerful, controversial claimant to provide a unified, theoretical framework for all the social sciences. In its simplest form, the theory postulates that humans are purposive beings who pursue their goals in a rational, efficient manner, seeking the greatest benefit at the lowest cost. This volume brings together prominent scholars working in several social science disciplines and the philosophy of science to debate the promise and problems of rational choice theory. As rational choice theory has spread from its home base in economics to other disciplines, it has come under fierce criticism. To its critics, the extension of the explanatory model mistakenly assumes that the logic of economic rationality can explain non-economic behavior and, at its worst, commits the ethnocentric error of imposing Western concepts of rationality on non-Western societies and cultures. This volume includes strong advocates as well as forceful critics of the rational choice approach. However, in contrast to previous debates, all the contributors share a commitment to open, constructive and knowledgeable dialogue. Well-known advocates of rational choice theory (Michael Hechter, Michael Smith, Chris Manfredi) explicitly ponder some of its serious limitations, while equally well-known critics (Ian Shapiro, Mario Bunge) strike a surprisingly conciliatory tone in contemplating its legitimate uses. Vociferous critics of neoclassical economics (Bunge) favorably discuss sociological proponents of rational choice theory while two economists who are not particularly anti-mainstream (Robin Rowley, George Grantham) critically assess the problems of such assumptions in their discipline. Philosophers (Storrs McCall) and sociologists (John Hall) alike reflect on the variable meaning of rationality in explaining social behavior. In the introduction and conclusion, the editors survey the current state of the debate and show how open, constructive dialogue enables us to move beyond hackneyed accusations and dismissals that have characterized much previous debate.
Download or read book Limits Of Mathematical Modeling In The Social Sciences The The Significance Of Godel s Incompleteness Phenomenon written by Francisco Antonio Doria and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2017-05-30 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Current mathematical models are notoriously unreliable in describing the time evolution of unexpected social phenomena, from financial crashes to revolution. Can such events be forecast? Can we compute probabilities about them? Can we model them? This book investigates and attempts to answer these questions through Gödel's two incompleteness theorems, and in doing so demonstrates how influential Gödel is in modern logical and mathematical thinking. Many mathematical models are applied to economics and social theory, while Gödel's theorems are able to predict their limitations for more accurate analysis and understanding of national and international events.This unique discussion is written for graduate level mathematicians applying their research to the social sciences, including economics, social studies and philosophy, and also for formal logicians and philosophers of science.
Download or read book Social Psychology in Transition written by Lloyd Strickland and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Emergence of Individual Differences in Social Context ROBERT B. ZAJONC A priest who was a heavy smoker once asked his bishop if it was all right if he smoked while praying. Appalled, the bishop chastised the priest for the very thought of soiling the solemn moment of prayer with such a filthy habit. Some years passed and the bishop came again through our priest's parish. And our tormented priest asked again about his predicament. But he asked a somewhat different question: "Your excellency," he said, "is it all right to pray while smoking?" There was no hesitation in the bishop's answer. "Of course!" he said. "There is nothing in the world that should keep you from praying. You can always pray, my son. You should miss no opportunity to pray. Whenever you wish to pray, by all means pray!" The relationship between individual differences and social psychology is roughly the same as between smoking and praying. Many social psychologists, and especially experimental social psycholOgists, are openly disdainful of individ ual difference variables. They avoid them in their studies and refuse to incor porate them in theories. The reasons for their (and we really should say "my" because the author is no exception in this matter) attitude are not obvious.
Download or read book Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences written by Donatella Della Porta and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2008-08-28 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A revolutionary textbook introducing masters and doctoral students to the major research approaches and methodologies in the social sciences. Written by an outstanding set of scholars, and derived from successful course teaching, this volume will empower students to choose their own approach to research, to justify this approach, and to situate it within the discipline. It addresses questions of ontology, epistemology and philosophy of social science, and proceeds to issues of methodology and research design essential for producing a good research proposal. It also introduces researchers to the main issues of debate and contention in the methodology of social sciences, identifying commonalities, historic continuities and genuine differences.
Download or read book The Limits of Scientific Reason written by John McIntyre and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2021-09-27 with total page 301 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Critically and comprehensively examining the works of Habermas and Foucault, two giants of 20th century continental philosophy, this book illuminates the effects of scientific reason as it migrates from its specialized institutions into society. It explores how science permeates shared human consciousness, to produce effects that ripple through the entire social body to restructure relations between persons, discourses, institutions, and power in ways which we are barely conscious of. The book shows how science, through its entwinement with power, discourses, and practices, presents certain social arrangements as natural and certain courses of action as beyond question. By arguing for a non-reductive, liberal scientific naturalism that sees science as one form of rationality amongst others, it opens possibilities for thought and action beyond scientific knowledge. Examining the shifting relations between science and other social institutions, discourses and power, the book addresses the narrowing of freedom by the instrumental modes of thinking that accompany scientific and technological change. McIntyre simultaneously raises the question of the good life and the question of a philosophical critique both directed towards science and, at the same time, shaped by, and responsive to it. By analysing the works of Foucault and Habermas in terms of their social, political, and historical contexts it reveals the two thinkers as linked by a commitment to the Enlightenment tradition and its emancipatory telos. The significant differences between the two are seen to result from Foucault’s radicalization of this tradition, a radicalization which is, at the same time, implicit within the Enlightenment project itself.
