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Auguste Comte's classical status in sociology and social theory is routinely taken to mean outdated. Coupled with this perception, there has been a pervasive tendency within contemporary discourse to presume a positivism that is largely rationalistic or scientistic and therefore critically and analytically useless. This paper explores how some of Comte's lesser acknowledged perspectives on science, history, 'progress' and what it is to be human may yet compel us to reexamine our ideas about the kind of positivism we think we have inherited and therefore need to renounce. I focus my reading of Comte through the lens of genealogies of thought not normally associated with his work, for instance, science and technology studies (STS) and posthumanist social theory.

Mainstream social sciences in the 20th century have always been highly fragmented, with considerable isolation among disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and political science and many disconnected islands of theory and research pursued within each field. Today, even more fundamental epistemological questions about the nature of human action or social life and the proper way to explain or understand it are hotly debated and remain quite unresolved. This article argues that it may be helpful broadly to classify diverse approaches to social or human science as (a) explanatory, (b) descriptivist, (c) critical, (d) postmodern/social constructionist, and (e) hermeneutic or interpretive approaches to such inquiry. Every such typology is shaped by its own epistemological ideals and value commitments. The authors try to make their commitments explicit and explain some of the ways they feel that an interpretive social science or hermeneutic viewpoint offers a relatively coherent view of social inquiry that assists them in incorporating the virtues and avoiding the limitations of other approaches.

Der Charakter der japanischen Sozialwissenschaften war aus historischer Sicht immer schon international, indem ein Austausch bzw. Import von Wissen und Gelehrten aus westlichen Ländern seit ihrer frühesten Entwicklung im 19. Jahrhundert erfolgte. Heute ist es ihr Ziel, welches von den Regierungsorganisationen vorgegeben wird, das vorhandene Wissen in andere Teile der Welt zu exportieren. In diesem Sinne waren die Aktivitäten der Sozialwissenschaften in Japan seit etwa eineinhalb Jahrhunderten durch den Import / Export von Fachwissen geprägt. Dabei hat immer die Regierungspolitik die Initiative ergriffen, um den internationalen Status der japanischen Sozialwissenschaften zu wahren. In diesem Kontext ist danach zu fragen, was einzelne Gelehrte dazu beigetragen haben, die Internationalisierungsbestrebungen der Regierung zu unterstützen. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden daher abseits der politischen Aspekte die Faktoren untersucht, welche zur Internationalisierung der Sozialwissenschaften in Japan geführt haben. Hierzu wird erstens der deutsche Einfluss auf die japanischen Sozialwissenschaften im späten 19. Jahrhundert sowie der Einfluss des Marxismus untersucht. Zweitens werden die Entwicklung des Hochschulsystems in Japan zwischen Forschung und Arbeitsmarkt sowie die Formen der interkulturellen Kommunikation in den Blick genommen. (ICI).

An assessment of the impact of social science on the formulation of public policy in liberal-democratic societies. As the postwar expansion became firmly entrenched in the 1950s & 1960s, many liberal-democratic states began to use social research for a number of policy purposes. In Europe, this trend resulted from the social measures & planning introduced by political reform coalitions who used social research to inform their policy choices after gaining power. Social scientists constituted a significant part of these coalitions & were able to gain access to resources & augment the role of social science in policy formulation. These developments were replicated in North America & contributed to the prestige & political significance of social science. The discussion is placed within the larger context of the social & political roles of intellectuals. AA

Machine generated contents note: 1.Scientific Realism -- Introduction -- What is Realism? -- Naturalistic Realism -- Global and Local Realism -- Realist Methodology -- The Centrality of Method -- Realism in the Social Sciences -- Conclusion -- Further Reading -- References -- 2.Evidence -- Introduction -- Social Science Preliminaries -- Empirical Evidence and Theory -- Coherentism and Naturalism -- Varieties of Evidence: Pragmatic Considerations -- Conclusion -- Further Reading -- References -- 3.Validity -- Introduction -- Test Validity, Operational Definition and Logical Empiricism -- Holism, Realism and Ontological Commitment -- Construct Validity and Logical Empiricism -- Construct Validity, Generalization in Experiments and Epistemology -- Paradigms of Validity -- Coherence Justification -- Conclusion -- Further Reading -- References -- 4.Grounded Theory Method -- Introduction -- The Abductive Theory of Method -- Problem Formulation -- Phenomena Detection --

Partial contents: Implantation and acclimatization of the social sciences in Thailand, by Prachoom Chomchai: Sociology in the third world situation, by G. E. Hurd and T. J. Johnson; The role of the sociologist and the growth of sociology in Latin America, by Jean Labbens; The implantation of sociology in Asia, by Ralph Pieris; Social crisis as an obstacle to the institutionalization of sociology in Latin America, by Aldo E. Solari.

Old age is difficult to define, so many terms overlap or clash with each other, all of which raise a number of issues: the elderly, the third age, the fourth age, senior citizens, pensioners, etc. It is not easy to determine the threshold for entering the period of life commonly known as old age. One thing is certain, old age has changed profoundly. From now on, it has become for everyone, albeit with profound inequalities, a normal stage of life. Social security systems combined with the considerable progress in medicine have made it possible to increase the length of retirement. Whereas in 1950 a man retiring at 65 could expect to live for about 12 years, today life expectancy at 60 is over 20 years for men and over 25 years for women. However, this simple observation has much more complex consequences in terms of the social identity, integration and social behaviour of these new population groups. Despite an ageing population, Switzerland has a total labour force of 4.706 million people. In the fourth quarter of 2019, the participation rate of the population aged 15 and over was 68.1%. This puts the country in second place in Europe behind Iceland (79.9%). Switzerland's neighbouring states have significantly lower levels (Germany: 62.6%, Austria: 61.4%; France: 55.5%, Italy: 49.9%). In particular, Switzerland has one of the highest rates of employed women in Europe. The percentage of employed women increased significantly between 2010 and 2019, from 56.9% to 60%.