UK Social Science Research Articles

Isomorphic tensions and anxiety in UK social science doctoral provision

ABSTRACT Scholars assert that, worldwide, doctoral provision is increasingly characterised by accelerated scales of production, competitive funding, centralised administration, and interdisciplinary, cohort-based training. The situation in the UK appears to mirror this picture but scholars have long noted that national settings mediate the forms that broader trends take. We therefore examined the case of the UK’s social science doctorates, which have seen both marked growth and a range of policy changes, to explore the potential extent of alignment with these trends. Invoking institutional isomorphism, a conceptual framework which asserts how convergence can be driven by different factors, we interviewed senior staff at a range of UK HEIs to examine the activities and underlying rationales behind their social science doctoral provision. We were able to establish that, while there is a degree of isomorphism around their social science doctorates, this is a complex and uneven situation because different kinds of HEIs are subject to a varying combination of simultaneous and often conflicting forces. Our analysis highlights not only how the relationship between national policies and higher education culture can be fraught, but also how organisations’ individual positioning and history has implications for how they are able to act in policy contexts.

‘We Used to Be Somebody’, can the UK recapture its reputation as a world-leader in research and innovation? Considering the future of training researchers.

The UK has recognised itself as a world leading educator, particularly in higher education where ten of the top 100 institutions are based in the UK. And yet, establishments such as the British Academy and the Royal Society are questioning whether the UK will continue to hold this recognition. Ahead of the recommissioning of Doctoral Training Partnerships (DTPs) in 2023, the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC), one of seven council domains of UKRI (UK Research & Innovation, the largest funder of doctoral research in the UK distributing funding from the UK Government) has sought to understand what the ‘gap’ is and how to close it. The ESRC commissioned three projects (Adams & Neary, 2022; ESRC, 2022; Ferrie et al., 2022; Tazzyman et al., 2021) in preparation for recommissioning and this paper reviews their recommendations and anticipated impact on DTPs, and the education of doctoral researchers. Specifically, the plans to increase exposure of digital data and related skills/toolkits and project management skills including dissemination strategies will be evaluated. The paper critically asks how the new approach will benefit researchers with a focus on those intending to stay in the academy and those who choose to build a career ‘beyond’. To focus this critical work, an ‘alternative’ career pathway, that uses research skills but also dissemination and knowledge exchange skills, will be examined as a critical exemplar: journalism. This paper will close by considering the future for research methods training, at least within UK social sciences, and whether it meets the needs of doctoral researchers, whichever career pathway they intend to follow.

Inclusion in higher education: an exploration of the subjective experiences of students

ABSTRACT There is a paucity of literature which explores students’ subjective meanings of inclusion in higher education (HE). Much of the focus is on the social exclusion debate, where HE is seen as a mechanism for the promotion of social equality. There is some research which explores students’ experiences, but this mostly involves those students who have acquired a label. Contemporary research in teaching and learning suggests that effective pedagogy should benefit all learners and should not require additional practices for separate groups. Based on this premise, this research seeks to begin an exploration of the meaning of inclusion to students participating in higher education. 251 students from a UK health and social science faculty participated in the research and responded to statements which elicited their subjective meanings of inclusion. Student understandings of inclusion are discussed through the emergent themes of ‘the imperative of relationship’ and ‘flexible practice enables participation’ and understood through the lens of socio-cultural theory.

More than research intermediaries: a descriptive study of the impact and value of learned societies in the UK social sciences

The role of learned societies, mutual organisations of scholars with a common interest in an academic discipline or research field, is a poorly understood part of the ecosystem for knowledge exchange and dissemination. As such, that role is vulnerable to the unintended consequences of actions by other institutions within this ecosystem. This paper reports a study of the social science learned societies operating in the UK in 2012/13. It describes their current activities and sustaining revenue streams, develops a methodology for documenting these, and establishes a baseline for future work to assess the impact of changes in their organisational environment.

Synthetic biology and the prospects for responsible innovation.

In this article we provide a short review of the debate on responsible innovation and its intersection with synthetic biology, focusing on initiatives we have witnessed and been involved with in the UK. First, we describe the ways in which responsibility in science has been reconfigured institutionally, from an internal focus on the provision of objective and reliable knowledge, to a more external view that embraces the ways in which it has an impact on society. Secondly, we introduce a framework for responsible innovation as a (partial) response to this shift, highlighting its constituent dimensions and the capacities and competencies that are needed to put it into practice. Thirdly, we chart the development of social science research on synthetic biology, addressing its evolution from an 'ethical, legal and social implications' (ELSI) frame to a responsible innovation frame. Fourthly, we review findings from UK social science research with the synthetic biology community setting out challenges for productive collaboration. And finally, we conclude with suggestions on the need for changes in institutional governance.

Open access and UK social and political science publishing

This paper outlines the UK publishing landscape for the social and political sciences, with particular reference to academic journals. The changes and challenges being brought to this environment by open access (OA) are described and the response of UK publishers examined. While some of the initial caution among publishers towards OA in the social and political sciences is beginning to recede, the pressures of funding, perception and engagement remain considerable. Despite scepticism from some quarters about the future role of so-called ‘legacy’ publishers, it is argued that their skills, knowledge and innovation will make them a valuable part of the evolving, and ever more varied, scholarly communications arena.

Embedding quantitative skills into the social science curriculum: case studies from Manchester

Those aiming to respond to the recognised shortage in quantitative skills within the UK social sciences have increasingly focused on the content of undergraduate degree programmes. Problems occur when quantitative methods are generally confined to a dedicated module, detached from substantive topics. This model makes it hard for students to understand or engage with the contribution of quantitative research to their discipline and can perpetuate negative perceptions of quantitative training. We suggest a solution to this problem is ‘quantitative embedding’, in which quantitative evidence and methods are incorporated into substantive teaching in the social sciences. We illustrate quantitative embedding with case studies from an ESRC funded project based in The University of Manchester, where teaching partnerships have developed curriculum innovations in Sociology and Politics. The paper then discusses the challenges of disseminating quantitative embedding, highlighting the need to bridge separate communities of practice that can isolate quantitative specialists.

A Sociologist's Field Notes to the Mass Observation Archive: A Consideration of the Challenges of ‘re-Using’ Mass Observation Data in a Longitudinal Mixed-Methods Study

This paper explores the challenges arising from the ‘re-use’ of Mass Observation Project (MOP) writing (1981 to present day) encountered by the authors when setting up an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) funded, longitudinal, mixed-methods research project on civic engagement. The paper begins with a brief review of the present UK social science research environment, highlighting the evidence for an increasing Research Council focus on interdisciplinary research and secondary analysis/re-use of data. It argues that this shift in focus gives rise to unique methodological challenges such as those encountered by the authors in this project. After providing some background and context, the paper discusses different obstacles encountered in the course of setting up this project. These include difficulties in: communicating within and across disciplines; re-using data across disciplines; the use of metadata, and its role in choosing writers from a longitudinal secondary data source; choice of analytical tools and approaches; and the Mass Observation writer's role in the research process. By sharing these experiences, the paper seeks to enable potential users of the MOP to see the value of MOP as a source of longitudinal qualitative secondary data; appreciate its potential for use with other data sources and across different disciplines; and equip other researchers to meet some of the challenges that the longitudinal use of MOP writing throws up.

Geographers Count: A Report on Quantitative Methods in Geography

This report is drawn from a project funded to better support the teachers of quantitative methods in UK social science. In it we identify the types of quantitative methods taught in the geography curricula for UK schools and universities, and discuss attitudes towards those methods amongst students and teachers. We argue that geography has benefitted from its position at the intersection of the sciences, social sciences and humanities, retaining a quantitative component. Consequently, levels of basic numeracy and data handling have remained relatively high, leaving the discipline well placed to respond to the call for greater quantitative training within the social sciences in the UK. However, we also suspect that the typical levels of quantitative training in university human geography courses are not sufficiently high to compete on the international stage. As the title suggests, our report is focused on geography. However we raise issues germane to other disciplines including what actually we mean by quantitative methods, what should be taught in a twenty-first century curriculum, how to meaningfully embed those methods in the substantive themes and teaching of a discipline, and whether more should be expected as a minimum standard of quantitative competence than the existing Quality Assurance Agency benchmarks require.

Anthropologists behaving badly? Impact and the politics of evaluation in an era of accountability

This paper discusses the move within UK social science funding to use non-academic ‘impact’ as a measure of quality and success for social research. It suggests that behind this move are a set of unspoken assumptions about what constitutes ‘good’ and ‘bad’ impact, and the paper seeks to problematize these. By way of provocation, it presents three classic cases of anthropological research, in which the impact of anthropologists on the societies in which they worked was at worst reprehensible, and at best controversial. These controversies – Darkness in El Dorado, the Human Terrain System and Fields of Wheat, Hills of Blood – are used to demonstrate the difficulty with which we can assess impacts as ‘good’ or ‘bad’, and the problems with attempting to do so.

There's just no talking with the past

This brief piece, based on a paper delivered at the 2012 UK Social Science History Conference, questions the merits of the common metaphor of communicating as a theorization of ‘doing history’. It claims that, following the rejection of the idea of objectivity in its most radical forms, the idea of conversing or communicating with the past has become increasingly important to explanations of what goes on in historical research, interpretation, and writing. The idea is not without problems of its own, however. Where it positions the past as if indeed somehow an active agent, able to converse with the historian in meaningful ways, the particularity of the past as past seems to deny that possibility. In order to understand the persistence of the communicative metaphor (even in the face of the obvious contradictions involved), the piece relates it to mistaken assumptions in historical thinking that continue to sustain it – namely that of conflating the past with history and that of confusing negotiations of personal memory with ‘experience’ of a historical past. In attempting to deal with these conflicting intuitions, it draws, among others, on a distinction between the creative imagination and any real access to the ‘otherness’ of the past. Ultimately – it will be shown – at stake in this debate is the capacity of the past to intervene on our understandings in any (disruptive) way.

Ethical consumption in Brazil and Chile: institutional contexts and development trajectories

This paper presents the first findings of an ongoing multi-national research project between universities in Brazil, Chile and the UK funded by the UK Economic and Social Science Research Council (ESRC) and the Department for International Development (DFID). The Choices project seeks to analyse contextual understandings and practices of ethical consumption in Chile and Brazil. In a further step, it explores how ethical consumption and public procurement can be associated and used to foster sustainable development. The paper presents the outcomes of the first stage of the project, an extensive literature review considering the developing trends towards “ethical”, “sustainable”, “responsible” and “conscious” consumption in both countries. Chile and Brazil are former developing countries, and although they both now have growing ethical consumption movements, we argue that these are shaped by the specificities of each country's political, economic and institutional trajectories. In one case, Chile, ethical consumption has arisen from market forces, with lead actors being companies, consultancies and citizen and consumer organizations. Brazil, on the other hand, provides also a very interesting case for studying how ethical consumption is embedded in another Latin American context: it has a larger state sector and a domestic market size to give the state, and thus the consecutive centre-left governments, great regulatory power, since it can control firms' access to this market. Both cases showed the increasing role of corporate social responsibility discourses and practices interfacing with concepts of ethical consumption. As a consequence, the paper identifies a risk of firstly, “greenwash” and “whitewash” by large companies and secondly, of having small producers struggling to market their products.

How OERs can help a Strategically Important and Vulnerable Subject Area - Quantitative Social Science

In the UK the 2010 Royal Statistical Society campaign - getstats - and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) have identified a pressing need to promote the use and understanding of statistical data and quantitative methods (QM). Despite excellent research data infrastructure such as the UK Data Service, the ESRC acknowledges a QM skills deficit in UK Social Science. Attempts to improve data and statistical literacy have largely focused on developing good practice at institutional level and have revealed pockets of excellence in UK social science departments. Investment at the postgraduate level has resulted in progress in 'capacity building' for researchers, and attention is now turning to the undergraduate level. The work reported in this paper is the result of a project - 'Sharing OERs for Statistical Literacy using Real World Data' - funded through the Open University's SCORE (Support Centre for Open Resources in Education) initiative. The project adopted a case study approach to investigate the use of real world data in social science teaching of quantitative methods (also referred to as quantitative skills) as part of research methods training. It focussed on teaching at the undergraduate level, and on the social sciences excluding psychology and economics. The methodological task was to find practitioners willing to discuss and share their experiences of using real world data in this environment, and to explore their approaches to sharing resources. The population from which interviewees were drawn was therefore restricted to those already engaged in this endeavour. Consequently the case studies were selected from those given the tasks of quantitative methods teaching, possibly marginalized through the 'quantitative/qualitative' split that is evident in UK social sciences, and thus those who have <em>the task of engaging the largely disengaged</em>. Other players in this space, notably policy practitioners, workplace trainers and academic support staff, were also included, though to a lesser degree, in order to look beyond the teaching of QM, and to connect to the wider issues, especially the employability of graduates with quantitative skills. The paper describes the approach taken, summarises activities undertaken, and provides a series of case studies showing differing perspectives of engaging with statistical data and methods. Evidence of the benefits of sharing open educational resources reflecting real world examples that support the development of statistical literacy are presented, and the barriers to sharing also discussed. Further areas for research and practice are also identified. <span class="sub_head">Keywords:</span> Statistical literacy, quantitative methods, social sciences, employability, real world data, quantitative skills, Open Educational Resources.

Developing statistical literacy using real-world data: investigating socioeconomic secondary data resources used in research and teaching

Increasing volumes of statistical data are being made available on the open web, including from the World Bank. This ‘data deluge’ provides both opportunities and challenges. Good use of these data requires statistical literacy. This paper presents results from a project that set out to better understand how socioeconomic secondary data are being used in helping to develop quantitative skills in UK university social sciences and focuses on the World Bank data in support of this. Evidence of real-world data use to develop statistically literate social science students is presented. This underpins capacity-building in UK social sciences, a need recognized by research councils, statistical organizations and other bodies. The work has helped uncover evidence of good practice in teaching and research to inform others who wish to support their students in becoming statistically literate using real-world data. The challenge is to share and replicate this good practice (mainly in economics and econometrics) in other areas of social and educational research which are less well served.

Do women publish fewer journal articles than men? Sex differences in publication productivity in the social sciences

This paper examines whether women and men publish journal articles at a level comparable with their representation within the social sciences. The paper also explores sex differences in patterns of single authorship and co-authorship. To do so, demographic data of the UK social sciences is compared with a sample of UK-authored journal articles. The findings of the study show that, overall, female academics contribute to a lower proportion of journal articles than the proportion of academic staff that they constitute. However, within certain disciplines (social policy and psychology) women publish articles at a level comparable with the proportion of the discipline that they constitute. These findings, it is argued, can be helpfully understood as both cause and consequence of the gendered academy.

Viewpoint — The Impact of ‘Impact’ on UK Social Science

Government funding of research in the UK takes place in three ways. First, direct funding by contracted research commissioned by Government departments (and by local authorities). Second, funding via the QR block grant distributed through the Research Assessment Exercise (now called the REF). Third, funding via the seven research councils and their umbrella organisation, Research Councils UK (RCUK). Each of these streams of funding has been severely affected by the Government‟s concern to reduce the deficit generated by the global financial crisis. At the same time, the Government (indirectly via Treasury strictures and, more directly via the ministry responsible for higher education, the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills) is keen to ensure „value for money‟ for what it funds. 1

Un-ethical review? Why it is wrong to apply the medical model of research governance to human geography

The Economic and Social Research Council, the body which funds much social science in the UK, recently imposed on UK social science a system of research ethics governance already well established in other areas of research and in much of the rest of the developed world. This system requires that research involving human subjects receive prior ethical approval from a committee made up of, typically, multidisciplinary researchers and lay people. Our aim in this paper is to prompt debate about the purpose and practice of such an anticipatory ethical review. We begin by describing the rich and varied ethical and political debates ongoing in human geography. We argue that these are, at best, ignored and, at worst, threatened by this system of ethical review by committee. We describe the emergence of these formal mechanisms of research governance and important differences between the ethical contexts, history, and demands of research in the medical and social sciences. The paper draws on empirical research investigating National Health Service (NHS) research ethics committees to propose three salutary lessons geographers would do well to consider from experience elsewhere with ethical review. We argue that in review by committee deliberations extend beyond the ethical to include the methodological, that the system is a self-perpetuating and increasingly rule-bound mechanism, and that despite a rhetoric of accountability it is a system as obscure to outsiders as professional ethics.

Social research for a multiethnic population: do the research ethics and standards guidelines of UK Learned Societies address this challenge?

There is increasing recognition in the UK that social science research should generate an evidence base that reflects the ethnic diversity of the population and informs positive developments in public policy and programmes for all. However, describing and understanding ethnic diversity, and associated disadvantage, is far from straightforward. In practice, the ethical and scientific arguments around whether and how to incorporate ethnicity into policy-relevant social research are complex and contentious. In particular, untheorised or insensitive inclusion of data on ethnic ‘groups’ can have negative consequences. The present investigation begins to explore the extent to which social scientists have access to advice and guidance in this area of research. Specifically, the paper examines how ethnic diversity is explicitly or implicitly considered within the research ethics and scientific standard guidance provided by UK social science Learned Societies to their members. The review found little in the way of explicit attention to ethnic diversity in the guidance documents, but nevertheless identified a number of pertinent themes. The paper compiles and extrapolates these themes to present a tentative set of principles for social scientists to debate and further develop.

Compare, contrast, converge? A biography of the Demographic Review of the Social Sciences (2006)

What influence does higher education policy research have on the shape of the academic fields it aims to support? This paper describes the generation and use of policy knowledge about the UK social sciences. It focuses on one case with which the author was closely involved: the Economic and Social Research Council's (ESRC) Demographic Review of the Social Sciences (Mills et al., 2006) that sought to address policy concerns about the age and nationality profiles of academic staff. Over the last decade there has been a significant growth in the quality and quantity of demographic and statistical data about staff working in UK higher education. Such data (and particularly that generated by the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) process) increasingly informs institutional and research funding strategies. The Review analysed and developed these data to compare more than a dozen different social science fields. Partly in order to generate ‘answers’ (or justify decisions) about the disciplinary allocation of doctoral studentships, the Review's comparisons simplified and homogenised the complexity of academic practice across these fields. By presuming that different fields of academic practice can be contrasted and compared, research policy ‘frames’ the social sciences in a way that increasingly seems to promote institutional convergence. The Review might be seen as reproducing the challenges it had set out to tackle. The 2006 Demographic Review is the latest in a stream of policy reports mapping the social sciences in the UK since the Second World War. In several cases, these policy representations, and their accompanying funding implications, have reshaped the social sciences in their own image. Placing the commissioning, writing and reception of the Demographic Review into a history of such documents, the paper explores the relationship between complexity, comparison and convergence.

Research Ethics in the UK: What Can Sociology Learn from Health?

The article reviews ethical consideration in social research and identifies current approaches to safeguarding ethical standards. One of these is the requirement to obtain approval from research ethics committees (RECs). Based on the results of a survey of UK social science academics about the process of applying to National Health Service RECs, we conclude that lessons can be learned for Sociology from the experiences of social researchers in Health. Overly rigid ethics committees could be counter-productive; we may need to reassess the functions of RECs and to strengthen other procedures to ensure the highest ethical standards for Sociology. Some suggestions for how this might be done are taken from the literature in the hope that they will stimulate debate.