Cutting NSF Is Like Liquidating Your Finest Investment
Look closely at your mobile phone or tablet. Touch-screen technology, speech recognition, digital sound recording and the internet were all developed using […]
Ivor Crewe on Psephology
In this episode of the Social Science Bites podcast series, political scientist Ivor Crewe, the current president of Britain’s Academy of Social sciences and the master of Oxford’s University College, discusses the modern art, and sometime science, of election polling.
Sarah Harper on the Population Challenge for the 21st Century
Around the world, populations are growing older. But is that because people are living longer? Or could it be that there are fewer younger people to dilute the demographic pool? And what about aging itself — when exactly is ‘old’ these days?
David Goldblatt on the Sociology of Football
As the World Cup kicks off, sportswriter and sociologist David Goldblatt discusses his unique academic vantage point of the beautiful game in the latest Social Science Bites podcast.
Bruce Hood on the Supernatural
Listen as Nigel Warburton talks with developmental psychologist Bruce Hood about the very natural tendency to look to the supernatural to explain events.
Saskia Sassen on Before Method
Here’s an idea: social scientists should reflect critically on the prevailing concepts and categories before launching into empirical work with an existing framework. In this episode of the Social Science Bites podcast, urban sociologist Saskia Sassen discusses that concept, called “before method,” with Nigel Warburton.
Gregory Clark on Names
What’s in a name? According to economist Gregory Clark, a lot of divine-able information about your family’s past and perhaps a fair bit about your children’s future. In the latest edition of Social Science Bites, David Edmonds talks with Clark about his at-times controversial examination of surnames and their nexus with social mobility.
Craig Calhoun on Protest Movements
In the latest edition of Social Science Bites, American sociologist Craig Calhoun discussed the formation of protest movement and the role of social science in addressing and understanding these outputs of social change.
Roberto Unger on What is Wrong with the Social Sciences Today?
In the latest edition of Social Science Bites, Brazilian philosopher and politician Roberto Mangabeira Unger discusses what is wrong with the social sciences today, arguing that they have degenerated into a pseudo-‐science.
