svart-hvitt
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Taking a step back again; what is science and what are the ways of science?
Take a look at this abstract by Danish Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg:
«Making Social Science Matter
Georgios Papanagnou, ed., Social Science and Policy Challenges: Democracy, Values, and Capacities, Paris: UNESCO Publishing, pp. 25-56
33 PagesPosted: 13 Jun 2013
Bent Flyvbjerg
University of Oxford - Said Business School
Date Written: October 1, 2012
Abstract
If we want to empower and re-enchant social scientific research, we need to do three things. First, we must drop all pretence, however indirect, at emulating the success of the natural sciences in producing cumulative and predictive theory, for their approach simply does not work in any of the social sciences. (For the full argument see Flyvbjerg, 2001.) Second, we must address problems that matter to groups in the local, national and global communities in which we live, and we must do it in ways that matter; we must focus on issues of context, values and power, as advocated by great social scientists from Aristotle and Machiavelli to Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu. Finally, we must effectively and dialogically communicate the results of our research to our fellow citizens, the ‘public’, and carefully listen to their feedback. If we do this – focus on specific values and interests in the context of particular power relations – we may successfully transform social scientific research into an activity performed in public for publics, sometimes to clarify, sometimes to intervene, sometimes to generate new perspectives, and always to serve as eyes and ears in ongoing efforts to understand the present and to deliberate about the future. We may, in short, arrive at social research that matters».
The point of the author is of utmost importance: An activity may cease to be scientific if it emulates the just steals the clothes of another science. Case in point: If social sciences just copy terms, definitions, calculus, language and other «clothes» from the natural sciences, the social sciences cease to be of practical relevance - and is therefore not science.
So when you experience that real social science differs from the natural sciences, it is not an indication that real social science is fake science. On the contrary, it may be social science that emulates and uses the tools from the natural sciences that is fake science.
I believe this crucial point is the source of much confusion and skepticism towards science among many people.
And I believe many on ASR have been blind to this point as well.
Take a look at this abstract by Danish Oxford professor Bent Flyvbjerg:
«Making Social Science Matter
Georgios Papanagnou, ed., Social Science and Policy Challenges: Democracy, Values, and Capacities, Paris: UNESCO Publishing, pp. 25-56
33 PagesPosted: 13 Jun 2013
Bent Flyvbjerg
University of Oxford - Said Business School
Date Written: October 1, 2012
Abstract
If we want to empower and re-enchant social scientific research, we need to do three things. First, we must drop all pretence, however indirect, at emulating the success of the natural sciences in producing cumulative and predictive theory, for their approach simply does not work in any of the social sciences. (For the full argument see Flyvbjerg, 2001.) Second, we must address problems that matter to groups in the local, national and global communities in which we live, and we must do it in ways that matter; we must focus on issues of context, values and power, as advocated by great social scientists from Aristotle and Machiavelli to Max Weber and Pierre Bourdieu. Finally, we must effectively and dialogically communicate the results of our research to our fellow citizens, the ‘public’, and carefully listen to their feedback. If we do this – focus on specific values and interests in the context of particular power relations – we may successfully transform social scientific research into an activity performed in public for publics, sometimes to clarify, sometimes to intervene, sometimes to generate new perspectives, and always to serve as eyes and ears in ongoing efforts to understand the present and to deliberate about the future. We may, in short, arrive at social research that matters».
The point of the author is of utmost importance: An activity may cease to be scientific if it emulates the just steals the clothes of another science. Case in point: If social sciences just copy terms, definitions, calculus, language and other «clothes» from the natural sciences, the social sciences cease to be of practical relevance - and is therefore not science.
So when you experience that real social science differs from the natural sciences, it is not an indication that real social science is fake science. On the contrary, it may be social science that emulates and uses the tools from the natural sciences that is fake science.
I believe this crucial point is the source of much confusion and skepticism towards science among many people.
And I believe many on ASR have been blind to this point as well.