The Institutionalization of COSSA: An Innovative Response to Crises by American Social Science

Over the past seventy-five years, separate disciplinary associations have been created for each of the social sciences in the United States. As a consequence, cooperation among the associations has only been periodic and delimited. These associations have been primarily focused on member services and have been less concerned than the biological and physical science associations with issues of governmental science policy.
The first Reagan budget was constructed to reduce the already sparse research support by the federal government for the social sciences. That intent mobilized the national social science community to develop collective and coordinated action. Building on a latent structure that had emerged from the common Washington location of the disciplinary associations, the Consortium of Social Science Associations was institutionalized to make a response. COSSA's initial success minimized some of the potential negative consequences. That success suggested the value of such cooperative efforts and also confirmed the necessity of the continuation of COSSA in the future.     

The Political Economy of Social Science Funding

This article examines recent economic and political trends constraining the production of social science knowledge. Particular attention is given to the Reagan Administration's attempt to contract public sector programs and curtail financial support for social science research. Trends in the private economy, especially within the publishing industry, that affect the production of social science knowledge are also discussed. Over the past few years, the market for social science knowledge has seriously eroded. The erosion of this market is examined within the larger framework of a shift in public policy from legitimation to capital accumulation, a shift that has accompanied right-wing ascendancy in American politics. This shift has created political and economic incentives encouraging the social science community to align more closely with conservatives.     

Future patterns of support for sociology

An organization like the Consortium operates not only as a watch-dog over current problems in Washington and as one voice in communicating priorities, but as a monitor of long-term trends in the federal/university relationship, the relationship of social and behavioral science to other science, and the general reputation of these fields. The marked improvement of the research situation from about 1950 to 1970 in part reflected a better regard for social science research, but was primarily part of a general increase in science and university support. A reversal for these fields began about 1970. It has affected fundamental and applied research, and the perceived utility of research in the conduct of government. University-based researchers should not view relative deprivation as attack, but should work to improve gradually the entire system of research, teaching, and communication with the broader public. The author is executive director of a Washington-based organization dedicated to representing the interests of the social science research community through lobbying and educational programs directed at federal policymakers. Trained as a biobehavioral scientist, Jenness was formerly executive associate of the Social Science Research Council.     

Government Influence on the Social Science Paradigm*

A scientific paradigm includes a set of widely shared understandings that specify a discipline's research methodologies and substantive priorities. The impact of government sponsorship of academic social research on the paradigms of four social science disciplines is evaluated using a probability sample of 1,079 faculty members in the fields of anthropology, economics, political science, and psychology. The results indicate that federal government funding is allocated according to topical and methodological priorities that are distinct from the disciplines' self-defined priorities. It is also found that: (1) federal support of academic research has a significant impact on the substantive and methodological plans of social scientists; (2) social scientists who are financially dependent on government assistance are particularly responsive to government influence; (3) the condition of financial dependency on government funding is in part a product of prior federal investment in social research. An “externalist” thesis holds that the scientific paradigm is not autonomous and is significantly shaped by such outside factors as the political system, and these findings provide support for this thesis.     

State Government Funding of Research on Science and Technology: A Report on Michigan

Abstract

The question of this paper is: what factors explain the decisions of state governments to fund research on science and technology? The theoretical problem underlying the research question is patronage in the classical sense, that is, the support by one person or group for the activities of another person or group. Three models of explanation are proposed: “budget incrementalism,” a “rational” model, and a power model. The models are evaluated with information from a case study of a state government program in Michigan. The rational model best explains the state's selection of some proposals out of all the proposals submitted by each state university for funding. The power model best explains the overall allocation of program funds among Michigan's public universities. The budget incrementalism model helps explain the considerable stability from year to year in funding both for the entire program and for each university's share.     

Political Science Perspectives on Poverty

ABSTRACT

The social science discipline of political science focuses on the study of political systems and political behavior. While political science has not developed a comprehensive theory of poverty, this article reviews political science perspectives related to the causes of poverty (culture of poverty and neo-Marxist theories of class), the role of government in addressing poverty (theories of distributive justice and public support for antipoverty policies), and political participation. The article concludes with recommendations for future research and implications for Human Behavior and the Social Environment curriculum.     

The Politics of Canadian Social Scientists: A Reply to Guimond and Palmer

TWO VERY DIFFERENT PICTURES regarding the relationship between the education system and socialization into dominant ideology emerge from the work of Guimond et al. (1989a; 1989b) and ourselves (Baer and Lambert, 1990). Using data from a single Quebec university, Guimond et al. argued that the conservatizing effect of education in the case of some programmes of study (e.g., commerce) was offset by a radicalizing effect in social science education. In their own words, "it can hardly be argued that education increases support for the status quo when one looks at the data relating to social science students.… [Our research program] clearly suggest[s] that studying the social sciences is a radicalizing experience" (Guimond et al., 1989b: 207; our emphasis). In our case, we used national, cross-sectional data to make a case for the substantive insignificance of any such social science effect in the long run, and to support our contention that overall, the education system in Canada has probably had a conservatizing influence.     

Obstacles to gaining ethical approval for a multi-centre study of family support

The NHS has emphasised the need for rigorous evaluations of preventative home-visiting support (Bull and others, 2004) in building a public health evidence base. Interdisciplinary studies involving the NHS in any capacity are subject to ethical review by NHS Research Ethics Committees. However, the current process of ethical review does not respond flexibly to research conducted by non-NHS organisations. Through documentary analysis, this paper describes the experience of a non-clinical research evaluation of a family support service offered during pregnancy and the difficulties encountered in gaining ethical approval. Implications for social science research with minimal NHS involvement are discussed and recommendations for improvements suggested.     

Organizational interventions and the creation of gendered knowledge: US universities and NSF ADVANCE

Universities are sites of both elite knowledge production and reproduction of intersecting gendered inequalities. The US National Science Foundation (NSF) ‘Increasing the Participation and Advancement of Women in Academic Science and Engineering Careers’ (ADVANCE) programme uses universities’ role as self‐reflective knowledge producers to design changes promoting gender equality. This knowledge is shaped by the institutional context of its production: NSF as a funder of scientific research; US universities as participants in highly competitive markets; managerialism as a condition of modern higher education systems; and separation of basic from applied research in the hierarchy of science. The tensions and underlying power dimensions of these contexts reveal local challenges that ADVANCE interventions navigate and the broader politics shaping what and how ADVANCE discovers. Yet, as a learning‐oriented intervention, ADVANCE changes over time to create and incorporate more gendered knowledge about inequalities, to legitimize feminist understandings of organizations, and to challenge the division between fundamental and applied knowledge.     

Basic‐Level Categories,Mirror Neurons,and Joint‐Attention Schemes: Three Points of Intersection Between G.H. Mead and Cognitive Science

Recent research in cognitive science has provided broad empirical support for the model of cognition and self‐development formulated by G.H. Mead. This is demonstrated specifically through three distinct cognitive mechanisms: basic‐level categories, mirror neurons, and joint‐attention schemes. These mechanisms illustrate a form of embodied sociality that underscores the intersubjective foundation of mind and self articulated by Mead. Research on basic‐level categories, mirror neurons, and joint‐attention schemes further extends Mead's relevance outside standard sociological and social psychological circles to the field of cognitive science and its emerging focus on sociality and social interaction.     

Social Networking Among Health Sciences University Students: Examining Social Network Usage,Social Support,and General Well-Being

Social network sites (SNSs) are organized around users who join an internet network to engage in daily discussions and postings. Though research informs us about SNSs usage, no published research addresses the use of social network sites among health science professionals. This study examined the relationship between social network usage, social support, and general well-being among undergraduate and graduate students. This study provides results that identify significant relationships (p < .001) associated with SNS usage and the variables of social support and general well-being among this study population. These results can inform the use of SNSs in university health sciences educational programs.     

Change Research: Narrating Social Change from the Bottom-Up

This essay provides a review of Bent Flyvbjerg’s critique of conventional social science research, including its limitations in applied fields such as social work, followed by a specification of his alternative for a “phronetic social science.” I detail how I with two colleagues practiced phronetic social science in our collaboration with Philadelphia housing activists, including most especially the role of interpretive narrative analysis as part of our case study research. In conclusion, I discuss the somewhat ironic challenges of trying to increase the legitimacy of such activist research in applied fields like social work where an obsession with being seen as scientific is prevalent as a means to improve prestige of applied research. I discuss how we need less top-down research which focuses on a “what works” agenda that serves the management of subordinate populations and more research that provides bottom-up understandings of a “what’s right” agenda tailored to empowering people in particular settings. Real social science research needs to listen to how people on the bottom experience their own subordination so that we can help them overcome their subjugation. Good social science includes taking the perspective of the oppressed in the name of helping them achieve social justice. In the end, there are a number of tension points between the model of conventional social science and phronetic social science that starkly highlight how we need to change research in order do research that promotes positive social change.     

The social shaping of digital research

The social shaping of technology (SST) has become a broad umbrella term to cover a variety of theoretical and methodological perspectives in the social sciences. It has also defined a set of funded projects in the UK focused on a particular technical initiative around e-social science – digital social research. It is increasingly understood that social science research and work on the SST, in particular, should be applied to the study of innovations in digital research and their implications for the sciences and humanities. This overview is designed to help introduce the diversity of perspectives that the social sciences can bring to bear, such as under the social shaping umbrella and explain why this set of perspectives is of value to policy and practice in this field. The continuing advance and diffusion of digital research make it ever more important to strengthen the role of the social sciences in this area of multi-disciplinary research, policy, and practice.     

“Living Well in Later Life”: An Overview of the National Service Framework for Older People in England

The National Service Framework (NSF) for Older People is a set of standards produced by the Department of Health in England in 2001 to overhaul the health and social service delivery systems over a 10-year period aimed at optimizing the care received by older adults. The NSF arose from broader social and health care reforms that likewise sought the establishment of performance assessment, augmented consumer sovereignty, and greater coherence across health and social services. The United States shares with England similar problems with care for its older adults, strategies for improvement, and obstacles to successful implementation of change.     

Setting Priorities for Research: New Politics for the Social Sciences*

This paper examines the emergence of sociopolitics in the United States during the 1980s. The Reagan Administration's drastic budget cuts for social research prompted social scientists to engage in interest-group politics. The newest development in sociopolitics is setting priorities for research. This paper examines the intellectual and political risks of setting priorities. I conclude that sociologists must begin to discuss the objectives and strategies of funding social research, and seek ways of reducing our dependency upon federal funding.     

"Living well in later life": an overview of the National Service Framework for Older People in England

The National Service Framework (NSF) for Older People is a set of standards produced by the Department of Health in England in 2001 to overhaul the health and social service delivery systems over a 10-year period aimed at optimizing the care received by older adults. The NSF arose from broader social and health care reforms that likewise sought the establishment of performance assessment, augmented consumer sovereignty, and greater coherence across health and social services. The United States shares with England similar problems with care for its older adults, strategies for improvement, and obstacles to successful implementation of change.     

The Use of the Observations Method in Courses in Municipal Government

This study of all fifty state, high school social studies curriculum standards found a lack of attention in the vast majority of state standards to the federal budget, federal debt, and budget deficit, topics of significant concern. These concepts are important to teaching about economics in the United States since they lie at the center of contemporary debates about the health of the nation's economy and its long-term viability. Our research discovered broad variation among states in the degree of specificity about teaching these economic concepts. We discuss specific ways in which some of the economic concepts found in state social studies standards might be used to infuse content about federal budget, federal debt, and budget deficit into high school social studies courses, critical topics in light of contemporary debates about the future of American entitlement programs and the federal government.     

Family policy and critical science research: Facilitating change

The principles of critical science for policy research are outlined and one research project is used as a case study. The study was intentionally designed to facilitate changes that would positively influence the economic well-being of children from divorced families. The project uses the critical science processes of public dialogue about child support guidelines for purposes of collaborative problem solving. The normative theories of procedural and distributive justice are used to guide the research reporting. The project contributes to changes in the practices of estimating the income needs of children, changes in estimating the relative monetary contributions of their parents, and proposed legislation and modifications in the state child support guidelines. She received her Ph.D. in family ecology from Michigan State University. Her research interests include the valuing issues of family life quality, family decision making, divorce,and the economic adjustments of families to economic stressors. She received her M.A. degree in Family Education from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include decision making and parenting. She received her Ph.D. degree in anthropology from the University of Minnesota. Her research interests include social and cultural change and the integration of research findings into public policy decision making.     

The turn to biology

This article firstly discusses social science reference to animal studies. The latter remain important in engagement with life science because of their frequent deployment and because of increased calls to re-examine animal research among sociologists and other social scientists. Extending from this discussion, it is argued that social scientists still tend to exhibit a questionable selectivity in their treatment of life-science research. In addition, it is suggested that insufficient attention is paid to epistemological differences between life and social science. The article concludes by outlining an approach to interdisciplinary endeavour that combines ‘parallelism’ with mutually reflexive scrutiny of social and life science assumption.     

Science and the Mass Media –‘Medialization’ as a New Perspective on an Intricate Relationship

This survey article discusses a recently proposed perspective on the science–media interface the concept of medialization. The medialization approach assumes that there is mutual resonance between science and the mass media. Medialization research systematically investigates structural transformation in science: What are the implications of high media attention for science funding, for research agendas, for universities and the professional self‐understanding of scientists? And how do these developments relate to the production of scientific knowledge? For detailed empirical studies of these processes, the medialization approach separates the role of mass media, but its grounding in general social theory contextualises this research with social science studies on sciences relation to other spheres such as politics and the economy.