关于社会的研究是一门科学吗?

一、引言关于社会科学,一个主要的方法论问题是,究竟它们是不是科学.不能说这个问题已经完全清楚,也不能说对此可以作出直接、简单的回答.我认为,社会科学的成功与失败、社会科学知识的性质及其作用,这些问题的解决最终取决于对认识自然的模式和认识社会的模式之比较.而那些想把心理学、政治学、经济学、地理学和历史学置于"科学"基础之上的人,却总以为自己在研究社会事件的过程中应用了与研究自然事件相     

International factors in the formation of refugee movements

The authors construct a theoretical framework for analyzing factors influencing international refugee movements. "On the basis of detailed case studies by the authors of the principal refugee flows generated in Asia, Africa, and Latin America from approximately 1960 to the present, it was found that international factors often intrude both directly and indirectly on the major types of social conflict that trigger refugee flows, and tend to exacerbate their effects. Refugees are also produced by conflicts that are manifestly international, but which are themselves often related to internal social conflict among the antagonists."     

Will population slowdowns yield resource conservation? Some social demurrers

Recent movements and social programs for American population limitation are premised on the expectation that reduced fertility will lower consumption, and hence conserve resources. This premise suffers from the fallacy ofceteris paribus: that, at the familial level, fertility reductions occur with no other familial change. In fact, recent history suggests that reduced childrearing has permitted greater income attainment and consumption by families foregoing childbearing. Moreover, even if families attempted to maintain lower consumption, the aggregate impacts on the economy would be defined as depressive, and lead to macrostructural counteractive strategies by the private and public sectors. This points to the automaticmutatis mutandis fallacy of the populationist movement: the notion that fertility reduction alone will cause economic and environment changes. Resource conservation efforts must deal with both these facts and social scientists have an obligation to present this realistic picture rather than accepting the assumptions of Zero Population Growth.