Social Science Paradigms Research Articles

Political Survivorship: An Interest Group Perspective

Until rather recently, the dominant paradigm in economics and other social sciences could be described as a wherein the legislative and regulatory initiatives of government were explained in terms of promoting the public's health and welfare. This perspective on government enterprise is in stark contrast to Adam Smith's views on the mercantilist policies of his day which included strong criticism of the monopolistic practices of the sovereign and economic groups seeking to utilize the power of the state to capture monopoly rents. The interest group as rehabilitated by Stigler [25], Landes and Posner [12], Peltzman [19], McCormick and Tollison [15; 16], Crain and Tollison [3; 4], and others, is closely related to Smith's perspective. From this perspective, these theorists have based their analyses on a positive theory which holds that the nature of government actions is determined by the costs and benefits faced by individuals brokering wealth transfers between groups. Following this tradition, we investigate the behavior of politicians as in markets for votes, campaign contributions, and public policies. The discipline of competition for votes, influence, ideas, money, and public policies in these markets requires that participants in the process bear some costs to enter and survive, let alone to prosper. Consequently, however one views the motives of public policy makers or the normative implications of the public goods they supply, the operative principle that the analysis below builds on is that survivorship of brokers in the process requires efficient supply behavior. The group theory is used in section II, below, to discuss efficient supply behavior for U.S. Senators and the testable implications of this behavior in markets for campaign funds and electoral support. Section III presents a series of econometric tests of the behavioral propositions derived from the group theory. Finally, section IV concludes the discussion.

Organizational Culture

The contemporary study of organizational culture reflects mainline concerns of the organizational sociologist. Though anthropology and cognitive psychology have made significant contributions to this new field, the study of organizational culture may be seen as a return to some of the most basic concerns about the nature of organizations and the appropriate methods for analyzing them. We review current work on theory, empirical studies, and contributions—both theoretical and empirical—o the understanding of planned change of organizations. The contemporary study of organizational culture reflects several hotly contested concerns, among which are the following: Can culture be intentionally managed? Must culture be studied using the tools of the phenomenologist or the ethnographer, or does the use of multivariate statistics also have a place? Which social science paradigm is most appropriate for understanding organizational culture: phenomenology, symbolic interaction, semiotics, structural-functional anthropology, cognitive psychology?

The Ethnocentric Basis of Social Science Knowledge Production

INTRODUCTION Since the dawn of the 20th century and indeed before, racial minorities have occasionally criticized the ethnocentric attributes of Euro-American scholarship. This sporadic opposition was solidified and systematized during the 1960s, when the civil rights movements began to extend from political, economic, and social arenas to intellectual circles. During that time and since, Chicanos, blacks, Native Americans, Asians, and other sociological minorities attempted to demystify the claims of Euro-American social science knowledge production to being value-free and universal. Their arguments, which were understandably controversial, brought about awareness in social science disciplines that no matter how well tested a theory is and no matter how well constructed social research instruments are, they are human constructs and are therefore embedded in the cultural background of social scientists. The social sciences are ethnocultural institutions that, as we shall see, are reflectors and microcosms of the societal hegemony privileges of Euro-Americans. Certainly the racial minorities' critique of the social sciences as ethnocultural enterprises has enlightened us about the monoculturalism of mainline social scientific paradigms and about the political and organizational dynamics which give preeminence to Euro-American contributions to the social sciences and which consign those of racial minorities to the sidelines. But for the most part this provocative literature tends to be too impressionistic to be of much long-term value. Its shallow substance, promises, and conclusions can be attributed to at least three problems. First, the understandable indignation racial minority scholars feel about how much the mainstream social sciences ignore them and distort their

Alternative Models of Peasant Families : A Critique of the New Home Economics

In presenting some ideas about the organization of families, this paper includes an explicit criticism of « economistic » theories of the family and social institutions. Broadly conceived, « economism », or the explanation of societal forms and phenomena through economic and productive processes, has become one of the dominant paradigms in modem social science. Two powerful currents of thought have largely contributed to the development of this perspective – Marxism on the one hand and, more recently, the Chicago school of economics which applies so-called neoclassical analysis to all kinds of institutions ranging from slavery (Fogel and Engerman 1974), to feudalism (North and Thomas 1971), to the family (Becker 1981), and to legal organizations (Posner 1981).

Towards a New Political Economy of State Industrialization in the Arab Middle East

Over recent years, scholars and politicians have grown to recognize the increasing obsolescence of models and patterns applicable to the development crisis. This crisis affects both ‘liberal’ capitalist systems and state-controlled ‘socialist’ systems, and can be analyzed on two levels. On the theoretical level, the development crisis is one aspect of the crisis of paradigms in social sciences, especially in economics. New ways of thinking originate with the denial of all those dogmatic approaches which have flourished in the realm of economic development for the last three decades. However, we cannot be satisfied with a predominantly empirical investigation devoid of theoretically explicit background. On the empirical level, some sweeping situations emerge; development processes, either unpredicted by, or contradictory to theoretical forecasts have arisen.

Using social policy research for reducing social problems: an empirical analysis of structure and functions.

Investigating three samples of social policy research in The Netherlands, the authors analyzed the conditions and functions influencing utilization (impact). Interorganizational context, intergroup relations, and role interaction were found to relate to utilization. The impact of social policy research upon organizational decisions is cognitive, communicative, and diagnostic. The cognitive function correlates negatively with publishing for scholarly audiences. Of the communicative function, six feedback strategies were evaluated with targeting scoring highest on impact. In the diagnostic function, creating consensus among decision-making groups has the greatest impact on decision making. The results suggest the latent operation of a professional paradigm of social policy research, distinct from the disciplinary social science paradigm.

Foundations of an Afrocentric Social Science

The focus of this analysis is to clarify the epistemological base and emergent direction of Black Studies; to establish the role of social science in the Black Studies enterprise; and to suggest directions for generating social-scientific theory, paradigms, models, and research in Black Studies. A basic premise of this analysis is that if one considers logical and empirical categories linked to the nascent growth of Black Studies, then Afrocentrism should become the guiding principle of Black Studies. By Afrocentrism I mean an activity whereby Afrikan people attempt to understand all other phenomena by virtue of its relationship to their survival and prosperity. Such an understanding must be informed by analyzing Afrikan culturebuilding from its earliest known manifestations. Without the

The perspective of evil in understanding and treating child abuse

This paper places the problem of child abuse in the perspective of evil. In so doing it calls into question the amoral assumptions of social science and human services. The current social science paradigm paradoxically dismisses evil as a real factor in the world, despite its concern for indisputably moral issues such as child abuse. The practical advantages of a perspective incorporating evil are several. Among them are a more realistic appreciation of the need for mechanisms of social control in preventing abuse, the role of confession and conversion, and the role of pastoral care as a support system for families.

Energy conservation and the role of the social sciences

In this article the author aims to provide a conceptual framework and a social scientific research paradigm for encouraging energy conservation by individuals and small businesses. Questions in the social sciences related to energy conservation are presented via a category system which divides conservation topics into microscopic and macroscopic problem areas. A problem-centered research paradigm, which stresses active rather than passive learning, is outlined and the ways in which it can be used to increase energy conservation, particularly in the US context, are described. The important role which social scientists can play in energy related research is also highlighted.

Sociology and comparative education: A comparative educationist's perspective

The thesis examined in this paper is that comparative educationists, far from following intellectual trends, have introduced new dimensions to methods of enquiry developed first by historians, then by social scientists and, finally and perhaps marginally, by conceptual philosophers. In so far as comparisons can be made, it is asserted that, in the twentieth century, paradigms in comparative education reflect revolutions in the natural sciences, and that to the extent that these preceded shifts in social science paradigms after about 1900, comparative educationists debated and rejected positivism before sociologists did, in the Anglo-Saxon world at least.

THE SOCIOLOGY OF THE GROWTH/NO‐GROWTH DEBATE*

ABSTRACTThis theoretical analysis focuses on the properties of conservative, liberal, and radical paradigms in social science and their application to the growth/no‐growth debate in environmental policy literature. We find conservatives working with an evolutionary model of society which suggests that environmental problems are imperfections to be remedied by science, technology, and the free market. Liberals recognize the benefits and costs of growth, and they articulate ways to minimize the costs through state regulation and planning. Radicals argue for state ownership of the means of production and new cultural values about growth as the only effective environmental policies. This analysis closes with a discussion of the future of the growth debate in terms of these paradigms.

Spatial Dynamics: Some Conceptual and Mathematical Issues

Spatial dynamics—the study of the spatiotemporal dimension of socioeconomic activities—is grounded on highly questionable premises. These are implicit or explicit philosophical theses regarding knowledge (empiricism) and society (methodological individualism). As a consequence of these premises—it is argued—the scientific knowledge of social phenomena becomes problematic if not impossible. It is further demonstrated that the dominant paradigm in the social sciences (based on empiricism and individualism) is not the only possible one. A fairly comprehensive overview of an alternative is presented, which draws upon recent advances in Marxian theory. In this perspective, the constitution and transformation of spatial configurations cannot be understood in terms of observable spatial relations; as social forms, spatial patterns must be explained in terms of the dynamics of the underlying social structure. Accordingly, ‘spatial dynamics’ must be reconstructed as the dynamics of spatial forms: the study of the formation and transformation of spatial configurations as expressions of the expanded reproduction of the capitalist mode of production in capitalist social formations. It is further argued—from the very nature of the capitalist process—that the transformation of spatial forms should be viewed as a process of evolution through instabilities and fluctuations. Accordingly, there is a sound theoretical motivation for experimenting with ‘dissipative structures’ and catastrophe theory. The basic ideas of nonequilibrium thermodynamics and dissipative structures are presented via two simple mathematical models. The latter do not intend to formalize Marx's or Schumpeter's theory. Their only function in the discourse of this paper is to illustrate how the ideas of structural determination, crises, and qualitative change can be captured in rigorous mathematical terms.

Zum Programm einer kritischen Sozialwissenschaft−Empirie und Theorie

Abstract The article argues for a synthesis between analytical philosophy and social sciences as relevant and necessary. The motivation and framework of such a synthesis is outlined on the basis of a critical social science. The authors illuminate such a perspective negatively in a critique of empirical and theoretical sociology, then positively in a clarification of the critical standpoint. Four theses, two under each-aspect, are defended: 1. Concerning empirical social sciences Neither the quantitative nor the qualitative paradigm of empirical social science is able to put forward adequate methods for social research. Instead, the development of reconstructive methods is proposed to combine the advantages and eliminate the disadvantages of the quantitative and qualitative paradigms. 2. Concerning theoretical sociology Macrosociological theories tend to resist empirical corrobation. Pure theoretical and philosophical justification abounds instead. In this situation the tools of analytic theory of science are proposed in order to clarify the necessary steps towards a further development of theories, which can be empirically tested. 3. Concerning the critique of society A critical social science must incorporate a theory of a just society in order to analyse social institutions in a normative way. In this context an ethical realist approach is offered which tries to fulfill two conditions for sociologically relevant normative reasonings: satisfaction of individual interests and the rational consensus of all persons concerned. 4. Concerning critique of ideology The tools of analytic philosophy can be given new application by combining them with an analysis of interests under the title of critique of ideology.

Paradigms in social science

Paradigms in social science