Scientific behavior is as common to the humanities as it is to the social sciences—in fact, many of the humanities are social sciences, a condition that should shame neither party. Though there is a clear intellectual line beween the arts and the sciences, no such line can be drawn between the humanistic social sciences and the "social" social sciences. There is a difference in perceived social status, which could be reduced by a better understanding of the common ground on which the humanist and the social scientist stand, Professor Homans, of Harvard, states as his qualifications "that I took my bachelor's degree in English literature, I am a professor of sociology, and I write history." This article was prepared for the American Council of Learned Societies and is published with its kind permission.
The paper deals with the state of the social sciences after the boom of internet services in the Czech Republic in the 1990s. The results of our survey, based on 512 responses from the economics and history departments of major Czech public universities, show that internet services are considered a quality factor for academic output; however, the issues of plagiarism, a lack of resource criticism, inadequacy of impact factor-based evaluations, poor academic training for the new generation of social scientists, the failure of state academic policy, and the generation gap make further development in the Czech social sciences rather problematic. As a result we recommend creating a better communication link between policy makers and scholars, reforming the current state policy which encourages lower quality academic output, and improving academic training, which requires a more individual approach, and also placing higher demands on social scientists.
Until 2012 many gatherings have been organised discussing the future of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) in the European research landscape; Many wise words were spoken and good ideas had been launched before, but to connect them with specific work programmes and discuss them in an open and broad manner, was another matter. Our Lithuanian colleagues recognised that the timing of their country's EU Presidency would be the perfect moment to discuss the role and relevance of SSH in the upcoming Framework Programme, Horizon 2020, with their wider impact. The new programme foresees the full integration of SSH into the "Grand Societal Challenges" that Europe faces and is determined to tackle through research, development and innovation. The realisation of these ambitious goals has yet to take shape. The conference in September 2013 was one of the many potential places to make this happen. Before the start of the conference we conducted a "consultation process" within the European SSH communities to hear the voices of as many contributors as possible. More than 300 very detailed responses have brought up interesting issues, which helped us to structure the conference and collect recommendations for drafting a declaration. We collaborated closely with the European Commission in preparing this conference: as a result, Commission staff participated in all sessions where the integration into the seven societal challenges was discussed. We asked prominent scholars from all branches of SSH to provide input. The first day of the conference concentrated on reflecting and assessing where we stand, whereas the second day was dedicated to a detailed discussion of the next necessary steps towards achieving integration. This report collects all conference contributions and the resulting recommendations.
This interdisciplinary volume explores the relationship between history and a range of disciplines in the humanities and social sciences: economics, political science, political theory, international relations, sociology, philosophy, law, literature and anthropology. The relevance of historical approaches within these disciplines has shifted over the centuries. Many of them, like law and economics, originally depended on self-consciously historical procedures. These included the marshalling of evidence from past experience, philological techniques and source criticism. Between the late nineteenth and the middle of the twentieth century, the influence of new methods of research, many indebted to models favoured by the natural sciences, such as statistical, analytical or empirical approaches, secured an expanding intellectual authority while the hegemony of historical methods declined in relative terms. In the aftermath of this change, the essays collected in History in the Humanities and Social Sciences reflect from a variety of angles on the relevance of historical concerns to representative disciplines as they are configured today
W roku 2011, na mocy decyzji administracyjnej, dokonano korekty podziału polskiej nauki na dziedziny i dyscypliny naukowe. W rezultacie takiego procesu zmieniła się przynależność dziedzinowa m.in. nauk o polityce. Do 30 września 2011 r. dyscyplina ta zaliczana była do dziedziny nauk humanistycznych, a po tej dacie włączono ją do nowej dziedziny nauk społecznych, która została wyodrębniona w wyniku podziału tej pierwszej. Ponieważ zmiana ta wywołała trwającą do dziś dyskusję na temat celowości dokonanej reformy także wśród politologów, ważnym zadaniem podjętych badań była próba potwierdzenia tezy, wg której decyzja taka była uzasadniona merytorycznie. Założono bowiem, że dyscyplina nauki o polityce, w porównaniu z dyscyplinami nauk humanistycznych, ma więcej cech wspólnych z innymi dyscyplinami zaliczonymi do dziedziny nauk społecznych. Ponadto, poprzez ustalenie nowego wykazu dziedzin i dyscyplin naukowych, administracyjne podziały w polskiej nauce zostały w znacznym stopniu dostosowane do klasyfikacji dziedzin i dyscyplin wypracowanych na forum OECD, UNESCO i EUROSTAT, co ułatwi internacjonalizację współpracy naukowej. Na forach tych organizacji i instytucji, a co za tym idzie także w wielu ich państwach członkowskich, już wcześniej podzielono nauki humanistyczne – kiedyś zamiennie nazywane naukami społecznymi – na dwie dziedziny: nauk społecznych i nauk humanistycznych. W celu potwierdzenia słuszności ww. tezy w toku rozważań konieczne było: ustalenie współczesnego pojmowania istoty specjalności naukowej, dyscypliny naukowej i dziedziny nauki; wskazanie najważniejszych podziałów w nauce; podjęcie próby określenia specyfiki dziedziny nauk humanistycznych oraz dziedziny nauk społecznych, a także ukazanie relacji nauk o polityce z tymi dziedzinami nauk. Ocena intensywności takich relacji umożliwiła potwierdzenie słuszności przyjętej tezy. ; By virtue of an administrative decision, the division of Polish academia into fields and disciplines was verified in 2011. It is owing to this process that political science, among others, was reassigned in Poland. Before September 30, 2011, political science was classified as one of the humanities, but later on it was included in the new field of the social sciences, created as a result of the division of the humanities. This decision started an ongoing discussion, also in the circles of political scientists, on the issue of how advisable this change is, and it has become an important task to confirm the thesis that this decision was substantially justified. It is assumed that political science as a discipline has more in common with other disciplines assigned to the social sciences than the humanities. Additionally, by way of developing a new register of academic fields and disciplines, the administrative divisions in Polish academia were to a large extent aligned with the classification of fields and disciplines adopted by the OECD, UNESCO and EUROSTAT, which will facilitate the internationalization of academic collaboration. The above organizations and institutions, and – consequently – some of their member states, have already divided the humanities, which used to be alternatively named social sciences, into two separate fields: the social sciences and the humanities. In order to justify the above-mentioned thesis it was necessary to determine how academic specialization, discipline and field of science are perceived today; to indicate the essential divisions in academia; to attempt to define the specific nature of the humanities versus social sciences; and to present the relations of political science to the latter category. The assessment of how intensive these relations are, made it possible to confirm that the above-mentioned thesis is justified.
In this book, Michael Brown provides original and critical analysis of the state of the social sciences and the humanities. He examines the different disciplines that address human affairs--from sociology, philosophy, political science, and anthropology to the humanities in general--to understand their common ground. He probes the ways in which we investigate the meaning of individuality in a society for which individuals are not the agents of the activities in which they participate, and he develops a critical method for studying the relations among activities, objects, and situations
In this book, Michael Brown provides original and critical analysis of the state of the social sciences and the humanities. He examines the different disciplines that address human affairs--from sociology, philosophy, political science, and anthropology to the humanities in general--to understand their common ground. He probes the ways in which we investigate the meaning of individuality in a society for which individuals are not the agents of the activities in which they participate, and he develops a critical method for studying the relations among activities, objects, and situations.
Introduction : The Renaissance / Orville Vernon Burton -- Technological revolutions I have known / Edward L. Ayers -- Rewiring the history and social studies classroom : needs, frameworks, dangers, and proposals / Randy Bass and Roy Rosenzweig -- Validity of web-based surveys : explorations with data from 2,382 teenagers / William Sims Bainbridge -- Computer environments for content analysis : reconceptualizing the roles of humans and computers / William Evans -- Electronic texts in the historical profession : perspectives from across the scholarly spectrum / Wendy Plotkin -- Social activism through computer networks / Daniel J. Myers -- Creating cybertrust : illustrations and guidelines / H. Jeanie Taylor and Cheris Kramarae -- Electronic networks for international research collaboration : implications for intellectual property protection in the early twenty-first century / Carole Ganz-Brown
Abstract Identifying a shift away from a more humanistic approach in the sociology and political science practiced in the United States since the 1950s, Jeffrey Alexander seeks to recuperate an intellectual tradition of the social sciences that places the cultural meanings and subjective dimensions of social actions at the very centre of analysis, while simultaneously considering the structure nature of social life. Opposing the 'great divide' between social sciences and humanities, therefore, Alexander proposes, via his strong program of cultural sociology, a conception of sociology that considers social facts not as 'things' but as 'texts,' analysing how cultural meanings are socially rooted and structure social life.
