Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences

Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences
Author: Alexander L. George
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 347
Release: 2005-04-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262262894

The use of case studies to build and test theories in political science and the other social sciences has increased in recent years. Many scholars have argued that the social sciences rely too heavily on quantitative research and formal models and have attempted to develop and refine rigorous methods for using case studies. This text presents a comprehensive analysis of research methods using case studies and examines the place of case studies in social science methodology. It argues that case studies, statistical methods, and formal models are complementary rather than competitive. The book explains how to design case study research that will produce results useful to policymakers and emphasizes the importance of developing policy-relevant theories. It offers three major contributions to case study methodology: an emphasis on the importance of within-case analysis, a detailed discussion of process tracing, and development of the concept of typological theories. Case Studies and Theory Development in the Social Sciences will be particularly useful to graduate students and scholars in social science methodology and the philosophy of science, as well as to those designing new research projects, and will contribute greatly to the broader debate about scientific methods.

Social Science for What?

Social Science for What?
Author: Mark Solovey
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 409
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0262358751

How the NSF became an important yet controversial patron for the social sciences, influencing debates over their scientific status and social relevance. In the early Cold War years, the U.S. government established the National Science Foundation (NSF), a civilian agency that soon became widely known for its dedication to supporting first-rate science. The agency's 1950 enabling legislation made no mention of the social sciences, although it included a vague reference to "other sciences." Nevertheless, as Mark Solovey shows in this book, the NSF also soon became a major--albeit controversial--source of public funding for them.

The Impact of the Social Sciences

The Impact of the Social Sciences
Author: Simon Bastow
Publisher: SAGE
Total Pages: 625
Release: 2014-01-17
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1446293254

The impact agenda is set to shape the way in which social scientists prioritise the work they choose to pursue, the research methods they use and how they publish their findings over the coming decade, but how much is currently known about how social science research has made a mark on society? Based on a three year research project studying the impact of 360 UK-based academics on business, government and civil society sectors, this groundbreaking new book undertakes the most thorough analysis yet of how academic research in the social sciences achieves public policy impacts, contributes to economic prosperity, and informs public understanding of policy issues as well as economic and social changes. The Impact of the Social Sciences addresses and engages with key issues, including: identifying ways to conceptualise and model impact in the social sciences developing more sophisticated ways to measure academic and external impacts of social science research explaining how impacts from individual academics, research units and universities can be improved. This book is essential reading for researchers, academics and anyone involved in discussions about how to improve the value and impact of funded research.

Scientific Discovery in the Social Sciences

Scientific Discovery in the Social Sciences
Author: Mark Addis
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2019-09-12
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 3030237699

This volume offers selected papers exploring issues arising from scientific discovery in the social sciences. It features a range of disciplines including behavioural sciences, computer science, finance, and statistics with an emphasis on philosophy. The first of the three parts examines methods of social scientific discovery. Chapters investigate the nature of causal analysis, philosophical issues around scale development in behavioural science research, imagination in social scientific practice, and relationships between paradigms of inquiry and scientific fraud. The next part considers the practice of social science discovery. Chapters discuss the lack of genuine scientific discovery in finance where hypotheses concern the cheapness of securities, the logic of scientific discovery in macroeconomics, and the nature of that what discovery with the Solidarity movement as a case study. The final part covers formalising theories in social science. Chapters analyse the abstract model theory of institutions as a way of representing the structure of scientific theories, the semi-automatic generation of cognitive science theories, and computational process models in the social sciences. The volume offers a unique perspective on scientific discovery in the social sciences. It will engage scholars and students with a multidisciplinary interest in the philosophy of science and social science.

International Development and the Social Sciences

International Development and the Social Sciences
Author: Frederick Cooper
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Total Pages: 380
Release: 1997
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780520209572

"This superb collection assembles a number of stimulating and theoretically current contributions by outstanding scholars."—Angelique Haugerud, author of The Culture of Politics in Modern Kenya

Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences

Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences
Author: Stephen Michael Kosslyn
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2015-05-15
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 9781118900772

A major new online reference work, Emerging Trends in the Social and Behavioral Sciences: Interdisciplinary Perspectives contains individual essays from both established scholars and rising stars. Links in each entry direct users to other relevant entries, often in other disciplines and specialties, thereby creating an intelligent multidimensional system of cross-referencing. Thoughtfully constructed with a multidimensional system of cross-referencing, this innovative reference work allows users to consider emerging trends in the social and behavioral sciences from multiple levels of analysis and from different disciplinary perspectives Focuses on five core social and behavioral science disciplines: anthropology, economics, political science, psychology and sociology - with additional entries in related fields such as education and communications studies Reviews and summarizes the current state of knowledge on each key topic in the social and behavioral sciences, maps emerging trends, and identifies new, promising lines of research Editorial Board members and contributors such as Jacque Eccles, University of Michigan (Psychology); Marlis Buchman, University of Zurich (Sociology); and David Laibson, Harvard (Economics) are recognized globally as experts in their fields www.wileyonlinelibrary.com/ref/emergingtrends Following initial publication, essays will be updated periodically to reflect new developments and new essays will be added.

Shaping Human Science Disciplines

Shaping Human Science Disciplines
Author: Christian Fleck
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 411
Release: 2018-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319927809

This book presents an analysis of the institutional development of selected social science and humanities (SSH) disciplines in Argentina, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Where most narratives of a scholarly past are presented as a succession of ‘ideas,’ research results and theories, this collection highlights the structural shifts in the systems of higher education, as well as institutions of research and innovation (beyond the universities) within which these disciplines have developed. This institutional perspective will facilitate systematic comparisons between developments in various disciplines and countries. Across eight country studies the book reveals remarkably different dynamics of disciplinary growth between countries, as well as important interdisciplinary differences within countries. In addition, instances of institutional contractions and downturns and veritable breaks of continuity under authoritarian political regimes can be observed, which are almost totally absent from narratives of individual disciplinary histories. This important work will provide a valuable resource to scholars of disciplinary history, the history of ideas, the sociology of education and of scientific knowledge.

Social Science Research

Social Science Research
Author: Anol Bhattacherjee
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 156
Release: 2012-04-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9781475146127

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.

The New History and the Social Studies

The New History and the Social Studies
Author: Harry Elmer Barnes
Publisher:
Total Pages: 666
Release: 1925
Genre: Historiography
ISBN:

Adopted by woodchucks at birth, a baby goose never feels she truly belongs--until the day she discovers she can fly.