Social Sciences In Terms Research Articles

Is Political Science a Science?

In this literature review, we aim to answer the question, is political science a science? through revisiting the work of Gabriel Almond and Stephen Genco, titled Clouds, clocks, and the study of politics (1977). We will show the paradigm shift in understanding the subject matter of social sciences in terms of epistemology, ontology, and methodology, from the positivist clock-like model to the plastic model of the post- behavioralist schools, relying on the three-stage metamorphosis of Popper’s metaphor of clouds and clocks. Then, we will show how our definition of science has transformed from methodology-focused iron-like rigidity of positivists to the substance-based pursuit of understanding plastic reality. The review fundamentally links the change in the perception of social science as a science to the transformation of our understanding of science as a whole, after the emergence of quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle of Heisenberg. The end result of this critical review reveals that political science is a science because science itself is not only about regularities and strict laws of classical mechanics, but it is about malleable realities. Therefore, although the subject matter of hard science differs from that of political science, political science could develop on parallel with hard science.

Measuring the Impact and Influence of Scientific Activity in the Humanities and Social Sciences

Scientific activity in the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) presents special characteristics that require the use of various sources and methodologies to adequately assess its impact and influence on both academic and non-academic audiences. This study aims to explore the validity of traditional and alternative information sources for the analysis of the characteristics of HSS research and its academic impact and influence (considering social, media, informative and political influence). It is also intended to highlight the differences between Humanities (H) and Social Sciences (SS) and analyse the variables that determine the different types of impact and influence of research in each of them. The following sources of information are used: Web of Science, conCIENCIA (institutional database), Google Scholar, Unpaywall, Altmetric.com and Overton, focused on the study of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC). The results obtained show that institutional sources make local research visible, which has high percentages of open access. The usefulness of alternative sources to measure social, media, informative and political influence is verified, since HSS publications have an important number of mentions. Significant differences are observed between H and SS in terms of publication coverage (higher in H in the institutional database), language (more Spanish in H), open access (higher percentages in SS) and impact measured through conCIENCIA (the greatest number of documents with a high impact is found in H). In addition, the influence on non-academic audiences is increased by the international orientation of research, the greater academic impact, the participation of SS centres and the immediacy of publications. This study is a starting point for future research, as it explores several tools and data sources to analyse the influence of HSS research on different audiences. A comprehensive analysis will also facilitate the proposal of new metrics applied to the HSS assessment, highlighting its importance for society as a whole.

Nominal Stance in Cross-disciplinary Academic Writing of L1 and L2 Speakers in Noun + that Constructions

Background. Literature indicates that in academic writing, authors are expected to demonstrate a noticeable stance so that they can make their meaning clear. Therefore, differences between native and non-native writers along with cross-disciplinary academic writing assume great significance.
 Purpose. The interactional, dialogic, and reflective nature of academic writing requires writers to utilize stance-establishing tools in their writing, the most prominent ones being stance nouns. In addition, the that-clause construction plays a vital role in conveying the author’s stance. Studies that compare L1 Turkish writers of English and L1 English writers regarding academic writing are rather scarce. As such, the present paper aims to analyze L1 Turkish writers of English and L1 English writers in eight disciplines from natural and social sciences in terms of the use of stance nouns in that-clause constructions.
 Methods. The study employs Jiang and Hyland's (2016) functional classification model in exploring the nominal stance in cross-disciplinary writing of L1 Turkish writers of English and L1 English writers. To this end, journals with high impact in eight disciplines from social and natural sciences were scanned and a total of 320 articles were included in the corpus. The social sciences included in the present study cover applied linguistics, history, psychology, and sociology while the natural sciences cover medicine, engineering, astronomy, and biology. In total, a corpus of 2.232.164 words was formed.
 Results and Implications. The study found significant differences not only in terms of natural and social sciences but also in terms of L1/L2 distinction. In addition, a secondary purpose of the study was to see whether writers in social and natural sciences differed in terms of empiricist and interpretive rationality. The results indicated that writers in social sciences tended to use more status and cognition nouns, indicating that they tend to be more interpretive. With significant differences between Turkish and English writers from a cross-disciplinary perspective, the present study offers important insights into how writers weave their stance in academic writing. Moreover, the present study also confirmed that writers in social sciences, whether L1 or L2, tend to use more stance nouns compared with writers in natural sciences.

Comparing Students of Medical and Social Sciences in Terms of Self-Assessment of Perceived Stress, Quality of Life, and Personal Characteristics.

The aim of this study was to compare medical and social sciences students’ outcomes in terms of self-perceived stress, quality of life, and personality traits. We put particular emphasis on external and internal differences in students of specific fields–medicine, nursing, psychology, and pedagogy. In a survey, 1,783 students from Medical University of Gdańsk and University of Gdańsk participated in our study, of whom 1,223 were included in the final statistical analysis. All of them were evaluated using valid and reliable questionnaires–TIPI-PL, PSS-10, and a one-item scale of quality of life. Stress turned out to have a negative effect on quality of life, regardless of the type of field of study. Moreover, students from different fields varied in terms of personality factors: conscientiousness, agreeableness, openness to experience, and emotional stability. In conclusion, many students regardless of their field suffer from high stress and report low quality of life, which potentially further affects their academic performance and social life.

Cinematheraphy dalam Islam

Cinematherapy is one of various techniques in therapy, but in this paper the researcher tries to combine cinematherapy techniques and the use of Islamic films in cinematherapy techniques. This study has a purpose, namely, to analyze the development of cinematherapy to help clients, and the lack of specific references that discuss cinematherapy in a religious context. Therefore, this research is here to try to contribute in the academic and social sciences in terms of counseling guidance so that it can contribute to the development of cinematherapy in Islam. The method used in this research is library research from the findings of journals that specifically discuss cinematherapy problems, namely 16 journals obtained through geoogle schoolar, garuda journals, sinta journals, and various searches found. The results of the study found that the cinematherapy technique has a high success rate in terms of general scientific fields but specifically the use of cinematherapy in Islam to overcome client problems has not been found. Therefore, researchers are trying to present Islamic values ​​in cinematherapy techniques as a form of scientific development in the form of cinematherapy as techniques and methods in overcoming client problems Keywords: therapy, film, cinematherapy, islam

PERSONAL AND STRUCTURAL SECURITY FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

The subject of the research presented in this publication is personal and structural security in terms of social sciences. The article characterizes the evolution of the concepts of personal and structural security in terms of social sciences. The category of security may be found in many fields of science and its individual disciplines. This makes security a polysemantic concept and acquires diverse meanings depending on science, discipline or practice [33]. In social sciences, it is situated within the area of needs and values. Consequently by comparing the above-discussed classifications of security approaches, one may reasonably conclude that the coupling between personal security (which directly concerns individual subjects - the person/individual) and structural security (which indirectly concerns those involved in social relations) has the dimension of a relationship with double connotations. In the case of certain security systems, when the individual’s sense of security (personal security) is affected by a threat, the effective functioning of the system (structural security) depends to a large extent on the ability to act of officers who may be considered as components of individual subsystems [29]. Their ability to act under threat (personal security) determines the effectiveness of the specific security system (structural security), and hence the sense of security of ordinary citizens who expect it to be restored (personal security). The state’s duties with respect to personal security of the citizens include not only their obligation to recognise hazards, prevent them and eliminate their consequences but also a special duty to take action to provide soldiers and officers with adequate equipment for their tasks, training, legal regulations and a system of support in the event of any injury to health [30]. In the latter area, it is imperative to have an effective medical and psychological support system organized, both before and after being assigned to particular tasks. It is also essential to ensure an adequate level of legal safety, indicating precise boundaries of powers and responsibilities to the entities obliged to perform safety tasks. The results of the analysis discussed in the publication allow making a presumption that the link between personal security (relating directly to individual entities - a person / an individual) and structural security (relating indirectly to entities involved in social relations) has the dimension of a relationship with double connotations.

Autoanalysis, with particular reflections on sociology

This article aims to contribute to a sociology of knowledge via an autoanalysis of a marginalised member of the British upper-middle class, who moved first from the South to the North of England and then from England to Scottish society as an immigrant: a ‘stranger who stayed’. Written in the first person, Bridget Fowler’s reflections move between different religious and political worlds, focusing especially on her reception of conflicting sociological theories and her own development through these. Influenced by five exceptionally learned and lucid sociologists – John Rex, Herminio Martins, Raymond Williams, Pierre Bourdieu and Terry Lovell – she has spent her sociological career contributing to the demystification of power in various forms. In particular she has focused on the significance of secular culture – notably literature – in creating hegemonic domination. She has also analysed the role of symbolic revolutions in social transformation, avoiding in this respect falling either into idealism or simplistic class reductionism. Arguing that sociological theory still needs to teach Marx, Weber and Durkheim, these founding figures should not be seen as creating – in social scientific terms – a unified architectural construction, but should be read with and against one another; further, they need also to be combined with other, more contemporary, influences. Finally whilst noting the existential salience of movements around identity – nation, gender, sexuality and disability – she argues that the discipline must continue to reach out ‘beyond the fragments’, to address social totalities more broadly, including wider issues of social space and structures of power.

ENGLISH AS MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION IN VIETNAM HIGHER EDUCATION: A STUDY OF STUDENTS’ ATTITUDINAL ASPECTS FROM A DISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVE

Although English used as a medium of instruction (EMI) has gained much research attention recently, there is still a dearth of studies that look into the differences and contrasts as construed by learners with different academic backgrounds. This study thus aims to investigate how students with different academic backgrounds (natural sciences versus social sciences) verbalize their attitude towards EMI and which challenges they face at a Vietnamese higher education institution. Two hundred and five questionnaires, accompanied with ten semi-structured interviews were used to obtain relevant research data. The results showed that the students in natural sciences (NS) and social sciences (SS) had generally accepted and embraced EMI as an essential part of their university education. However, some significant attitudinal differences were found between students studying NS and SS in terms of their belief (cognitive aspect), their perceived benefits (affective aspect), and their intentions and strategies (behavioral aspect) towards EMI. It was also noticed that the students encountered a variety of challenges in EMI. Finally, some implications will be drawn from the findings with an aim to enhance the quality of EMI delivery at tertiary level.

Development and Implementation of Module for Value Inculcation through Teaching of Social Science

Our society is faced with grave peril of value deterioration. Crimes in all areas of life are rampant and there is dissatisfaction amongst people. Therefore, it is important to tackle this hazard urgently and seize its growth. There is a pressing need for appropriate educational action to meet this challenge. Value education has been strongly emphasized. Value education is a deliberate programme that works towards the development of values, building holistic individuals. One way in which values can be taught in schools is through developing a module for teachers in Social Science integrated with values. The objectives of the study were to develop, implement and study the effectiveness of the module for teaching Social Science in terms of conceptual knowledge and perception of values of Equality and Peace. The research design was Quasi-experimental in nature. Convenience sampling technique was followed to select the sample which consisted of 30 students from class IX of two schools of Vadodara city thereby forming the experimental and control group. Achievement test, Value Knowledge test, and Perception scale were constructed and administered to gather the data. The study was conducted in five phases. Mean, SD, Mann-Whitney U-test was used for data analysis. The findings revealed that the module developed for teachers for the inculcation of values in students through the teaching of Social Science was effective as the students had a higher conceptual knowledge and a higher perception of the values of Equality and Peace.

Toplumsal Teknolojik Gelişmeler Açısından Sosyal Bilimlerin İşlevi ve Toplumla Etkileşimi

Tarihsel süreçte toplumlar, teknolojideki, kültürdeki, ideolojilerdeki değişimler vb. etkisiyle daha karmaşık toplumsal yapılara doğru evirilmiştir. Fizik bilimlerde, teknolojideki gelişmeler çok hızlı gelişmiş, sosyal bilimlerde, kültürde olan değişimler ise aynı hızda ilerleyememiştir. Ancak, bütün bir tarihin de gösterdiği gibi, sosyal bilimler gelişmeden ne fizik bilimlerin ne de sosyo-ekonomik gelişmelerin yerini bulması olanaklı değildir. O nedenle buradaki makalede, öncelikle, bilimsel yaklaşımlar dikkate alınarak, genel olarak bilimin ve sosyal bilimlerin sağlam temeller üzerinde oturması üzerinde durulmuştur. Devamında bazı önemli teorisyenlerin, düşünürlerin görüşlerine de yer verilerek, toplumsal gelişme açısından sosyal bilimlerin işlevi, farklı yaklaşımların düşünce dünyasına kazandırdıkları zenginliklerle anlatılmaya çalışılmıştır. Aynı zamanda toplumlardaki değişmelere dikkat çekilerek, sosyal bilimlerin bu değişimlerle olan ilişkisi, etkileşimi açıklanmaya çalışılmıştır. Buradaki satırlarda yer alan derinliğine incelemeler ve analizlerle toplumsal gelişme açısından sosyal bilimlerin işlevini değerlendirmek makalenin amacıdır. Sağlıklı bir toplumsal gelişme olabilmesi için, sağlıklı bir temelde gelişen sosyal bilimlere ihtiyaç bulunmaktadır. Bu durum ise, konu üzerinde gerçekleştirilen makalenin farkındalık yaratma açısından ne kadar önemli olduğunu açıklamaktadır. Çalışmada literatür taraması yöntemi kullanılmıştır. İncelenen teoriler ve yaklaşımlar, literatür taraması yöntemi benimsenerek, yorum ve analizlerle güçlendirilmek istenmiştir.

Chinese Philosophical Viewpoints on the Natural and Humanistic Conditions of Artistic Achievement in the Italian Renaissance and Its Contemporary Implication

This paper aims at reflecting on our life in contemporary predicament of living in “iron cage” and with “value-fragmentation” proposed from Max Weber through exploiting Chinese philosophical thoughts to synthesize the contribution from different disciplinaries. It intends to explore the issue in the Italian Renaissance but not only limited in that golden age—how could the artistic, cultural achievement in an age be possible? To explore this, issues could easily fall into describing social phenomena by using social scientific terms. When using descriptive language to depict social phenomena, we may find out lots of reasons from a higgledy-piggledy collection of phenomena fragments and social scientists try their best to give reasonable explanations for those phenomena. They have given lots of significant contributions through their research approach. However, in this paper, it aims to discover this issue through interdisciplinary approach to combine the geopolitics, macro-history, and cultural history as well as finally synthesize those perspectives and give more comprehensive picture mapped up by means of Chinese pre-Qin Daoist philosophy and pre-Qin Confucianism. In terms of geopolitics and macro history, this paper firstly attempts to explore how natural environment conditioned and affected economic development and political stability in Renaissance Venice and Florentine. In addition, it discusses whether patronage in Renaissance and Chinese Song Dynasty was merely to show off wealth or not? Furthermore, it introduces pre-Qin Confucianism to enlarge the philosophical aspect on those two questions. In Conclusion, it concludes on how pre-Qin Confucianism maps together with pre-Qin Daoism and how we can benefit from the synthetic perspectives of macro history, geopolitics, social science, and that of traditional Chinese philosophy to be in face of nowadays dilemma.

Enhancing Access and Use of Climate Information through ICTs

Although the role of ICTs in improving human life in Kenya is acknowledged widely, the focus of much of ICT-related developments has been on human experiences at the level of disease and needs for communication and mobility. Less obvious is how such technological interventions may be used to address seemingly abstract yet grave concerns like climate change and its impact on the quality of human life. This review paper, therefore, shall investigate the different situations where ICTs may be deployed in relaying packaged and relevant localized climate information that can help rural farmers in Kitui County, Kenya to make pertinent and timely decisions to improve their productivity and, ultimately, their livelihoods. We hypothesize that rural communities' use ICT tools such as the mobile phones and the community radios to access localized climate information (weather, seasonal forecasts, and agro-advisories) and that livelihood assets and livelihood strategies positively change with the increasing availability and use of the ICT-based climate information. The idea of the paper presented is to merge theoretical and applied research outcomes to narrow the gap between the theory of ICTs usage and the practice of it, while linking it to climate information and enhanced rural livelihood strategies. The review of this paper shall be captured in social-scientific terms, and shall contribute to knowledge by helping researchers and policymakers to determine climate information needs of rural ASAL communities, knowledge on innovations related to ICTs, among others.

Thinking About Nature in the East: An Empirical Investigation of Visions of Nature in Vietnam

Abstract This study employed the “Visions of nature” framework (a “scale” in social-scientific terms), developed in the Netherlands, to investigate people's ideas on nature in an Eastern culture, n...

Innovation as a political process of development: are neo-Schumpeterians value neutral?

ABSTRACTTechnological innovation has been one of the fastest growing areas of economics scholarship and one where history and philosophy have played important roles. Since the reconstruction of Joseph Schumpeter’s view of innovation as a driver of capitalist development and the subsequent formation of the national innovation systems (NIS) theory in the early 1990s that can be described as neo-Schumpeterian, there has been a continuous attempt to explain innovation in social-scientific terms. However, much of this has positioned innovation as a value-neutral process. We argue that such value-neutrality requires closer analysis because the neo-Schumpeterian thinkers do appear to acknowledge that capitalism itself is an uneven, dynamic process. The relationship between the vital dynamism of such analysis of technological change and the context of its description of power relations and value deserves further attention. Under what conditions can systemic interactions between institutions and actors function as universal frameworks? Can the theory of innovation be abstracted from its social and political bases? This paper aims to redefine innovation as a predominately political process that is both historical and contextual, and thus draw out its implications for economics and development. The paper suggests some preliminary steps toward a more critical approach to innovation scholarship.

Pedagogika ogólna a socjologia ogólna

Pedagogika, jako nauka o wychowaniu, oraz socjologia, jako nauka o społeczeństwie, to dziedziny pokrewne. Tradycja w tym zakresie jest zresztą długa. Nie tylko Florian Znaniecki uprawiał refleksję w ramach obu dyscyplin, lecz wcześniej podobnie czynił Emile Durkheim, ojciec akademickiej socjologii. Podobieństwa dotyczą ujęć teoretycznych oraz pól i kontekstów badawczych. Socjologia ogólna to socjologia teoretyczna, to próba wypracowania ogólnej teorii społeczeństwa. W przypadku pedagogiki aspiracje sięgają chyba nieco dalej, gdyż obejmują jakiś rodzaj metarefleksji nad procesami wychowania w społeczeństwie, który jest dodatkowo wyposażony w imperatyw metodologiczny, a także rozważania na temat kondycji współczesnego człowieka. Autor próbuje zanalizować status obu „ogólnych” dziedzin występujących w ramach dwóch dyscyplin nauk społecznych w kategoriach podobieństw, różnic, a nawet integracji w ramach wybranych zagadnień.

Open access publications in sciences and social sciences: A comparative analysis

In this paper, we conduct a comparative analysis to examine the characteristics and evolutionary trends of open access (OA) publications in natural and social sciences. We use data recorded by Science Citation Index Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, and Journal Citation Reports during 2001–2015 as the main source. We then comparatively analyse the characteristics of natural and social sciences in terms of historical evolution, main contributors, and distribution of OA journals and publications across different languages, disciplines, and impact factor quartiles. Our results suggest that both natural and social sciences experienced dramatic growth of OA journals since 2009, but the share of social science OA journals within journal impact factor quartile 1 is much lower than that of natural sciences. While natural and social sciences share some similarities in OA publishing activities, such as main countries of contribution, they differ greatly in dimensions such as OA ratio across specific disciplines, countries, and publishing languages. We acknowledge that OA publishing offers a level playing field for traditionally disadvantaged languages, countries, and scientific disciplines, but meanwhile, the advancement of high‐quality OA publishing needs more targeted and sophisticated approaches to tackle differences in natural and social sciences.

Avoiding the tragedy of (un)common knowledge: reflections on conducting qualitative criminological research in conservation science

The interdisciplinary nature of conservation science has generated much discussion. Previous scholars have highlighted the lack of mutual understanding between the natural and social sciences in terms of theoretical knowledge and methodological practices. Due to this, the potential for the ‘tragedy of (un)common knowledge’ may hinder interdisciplinary scholarship within conservation science. While others have provided valuable insight on the scholarly and pedagogic challenges associated with interdisciplinary research, there has been little dialogue on the methodological components. Based on an ethnographic study on law enforcement rangers in a protected area in Uganda, this article provides key reflections on entrée, forming trust and rapport, establishing an identity, and data collection. It is argued that such methodological transparency will help foster dialogue between the natural and social sciences, while displaying the central role of qualitative methods in facilitating interdisciplinary research.

Clinical Encounters and Citizenship Projects in South India

Dedicated to a South Indian goddess, devadasis are priests in a healing cult, whose nonconjugal sexuality has been designated ‘prostitution’ and subjected to eradication by the state. Drawing on ethnographic research, I consider two ways in which they cross the threshold of the clinic, as ‘vectors of disease’ and as sex worker peer educators, in order to think about the bio-politics of citizenship in postcolonial India. If biopolitical citizenship describes the way the state takes hold of their bodies, dedication describes how their bodies are claimed by the Devi Yellamma. I juxtapose these different ways of embodying power as a means to mark the limits of secular social scientific terms of recognition.

Does Google shape what we know?

While much has been written about the technological, economic and regulatory aspects of search engines, their impact on everyday life has been largely overlooked. This essay argues that this is mainly because the role of information and knowledge has been poorly theorized in the social sciences in terms of how search engines are actually used. One way to make a start on this topic is to bring to bear two theoretical frameworks from the social study of technology – large technological systems and the domestication of technology. These allow us to see how search engines have become an infrastructure at a time when, on the one hand, the uses of the Internet as a system have become pervasive and, on the other, information seeking in the home has become a routine activity in everyday life. Several studies of search behaviour have identified the main patterns of search. What emerges is the dominant role played by Google, and that the vast majority of searches are related to leisure. The paper asks whether Google plays a gatekeeping function, and how it shapes the information we use in everyday life.

A 21st Century Interdisciplinary Social Science

Global trends initiated in the 20th Century are continuing unabated into the 21st Century and are transforming human society. These trends include the information explosion fueled by science and technology, the unrelenting population explosion, limited and un-replenished natural resources, global warming and pollution, fluctuating financial markets and the evolving global economy, rising cultural expectations, and democratic revolutions. Lifestyles, identities, work patterns, consumer trends, organization, institutions, and nation-states can all be expected to change and adapt to the realities of the 21st Century. The social sciences will be no exception as indicated by the following: 1) global trends and oscillations will pressure the social sciences to become increasingly pragmatic and applied; 2) the progression of pragmatism in the social sciences will necessitate, in turn, shifting from the ideal of a classical model of science to the reality of a stochastic model of social science; and 3) an explicitly stochastic model of social science will lead to technological innovations, profound changes in how we do science (e.g., the emergence of interdisciplinary teams), and require a new code of ethics (i.e., how we conduct ourselves as social scientists). The overwhelming realities of the 21st Century will compel social scientists to rethink social science in terms of its relevance and credibility. Social science is standing at the cross-roads.