Actions for How social science got better : overcoming bias with more evidence, diversity, and self-reflection

Email RIS file
Bookmark
Report an Issue

How social science got better : overcoming bias with more evidence, diversity, and self-reflection / Matt Grossmann

Author
Grossmann, Matthew
Published
New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2021]
Physical Description
xxiv, 316 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Availability

Browse Nearby on Shelf
I Want It
I Want It

Finding items...

Contents
Social science biases and collective knowledge -- Reform and progress -- The quiet resolution of the science wars -- Me-search all the way down -- American academia: the main setting for social science -- Opportunities and constraints of the disciplines -- Multiple levels of analysis and time scales -- All history and policy -- Motivations and constraints of a practical orientation -- popularization and consilience.
Summary
"Social science research is facing mounting criticism, as canonical studies fail to replicate, questionable research practices abound, and researcher social and political biases come under fire. Far from crisis, however, social science is undergoing an unparalleled renaissance of ever-broader and deeper understanding and application-made possible by close attention to criticism of our biases and open public engagement. Wars between scientists and their humanist critics, methodological disputes over statistical practice and qualitative research, and disciplinary battles over grand theories of human nature have all quietly died down as new generations of scholars have integrated the insights of multiple sides. Rather than deny that researcher biases affect results, scholars now closely analyze how our racial, gender, geographic, methodological, political, and ideological differences impact our research questions, how the incentives of academia influence our research practices, and how universal human desires to avoid uncomfortable truths and easily solve problems affect our conclusions. To be sure, misaligned incentive structures remain, but a messy, collective deliberation across the research community is boosting self-knowledge and improving practice. Ours is an unprecedented age of theoretical diversity, open and connected data, and public scholarship. How Social Science Got Better documents and explains recent transformations, crediting both internal and public critics for strengthening social science. Applying insights from the philosophy, history, and sociology of science and providing new data on trends in social science research and scholarly views, it demonstrates that social science has never been more relevant, rigorous, or self-reflective"--
Subject(s)
ISBN
9780197518977 hardcover
0197518974 hardcover
Bibliography Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
View MARC record | catkey: 36489256