Communication

Weekly Overview of Social Science News

January 26, 2014 2306

“The simplest explanation for ‘the curious absence of socially conservative economics’ the same reason that there aren’t many social conservatives in any academic field: Because social conservatism is considered uniquely socially disreputable in elite culture, in ways that libertarianism and economic conservatism are not.”

“Admittedly, NSF and NIH do both fund some HSS research, but the amounts involved are tiny compared with their STM expenditures – for example, just $250m or so of NSF’s $5.5bn research funds is spent on social, behavioral, and economic sciences. The only field receiving less funding is the US Arctic Research Commission!”

“‘The program suggested by our article would not fundamentally change the nature of social science,’ said David Laitin, a political science professor at Stanford University and a co-author of the article. ‘Rather, it would have small implications in the way we collect and report our data. It would also invite us to put more attention to the replication of well-known findings rather than investigations of new factors. But these small changes in our practices could have large effects in revising what we thought were well-established findings.'”

“[G Venkat Raman] expresses his disappointment in the overall decline in interest in social science amongst parents and schools. ‘We have not been able to generate a section of scholars to inspire youngsters to pursue social science for higher education. Schools too feel that having just one period a day for history and geography is more than enough. But what has surprised me is when students come up to me and admit that they did not know social science is such a beautiful subject,’ he says.

“’If you’re analyzing the phone book — or the 21st century version thereof — you shouldn’t have to consider it to be human subjects research,’ said Susan Fiske, a professor of psychology and public affairs at Princeton University, who led the committee.”

Senior Marketing Manager at SAGE, and editor of the SAGE Insight blog

View all posts by Lorna McConville

Related Articles

After the University? Braiding a Path Forward
Higher Education Reform
January 21, 2026

After the University? Braiding a Path Forward

Read Now
A Status Check on Hallucinated Case Law Incidents
Innovation
January 12, 2026

A Status Check on Hallucinated Case Law Incidents

Read Now
Scientists Should Keep in Mind It’s Called the ‘Marketplace of Ideas’ for a Reason
Communication
December 29, 2025

Scientists Should Keep in Mind It’s Called the ‘Marketplace of Ideas’ for a Reason

Read Now
What Is a University For, After Gaza?
Higher Education Reform
December 23, 2025

What Is a University For, After Gaza?

Read Now
An AI Authorship Protocol Aims to Sharpen a Sometimes-Fuzzy Line

An AI Authorship Protocol Aims to Sharpen a Sometimes-Fuzzy Line

The latest generation of artificial intelligence models is sharper and smoother, producing polished text with fewer errors and hallucinations. As a philosophy […]

Read Now
Stop the Rot, Fight the Malaise and Reclaim the Void!

Stop the Rot, Fight the Malaise and Reclaim the Void!

Reflecting on my 17 years of tertiary education and 19 years of teaching and learning, university life was mostly supportive and always […]

Read Now
Stop the University Ranking Circus

Stop the University Ranking Circus

It’s that time of the year again. Some 50 percent of your academic LinkedIn connections share they are “happy” or even “thrilled” […]

Read Now
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

0 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments