Science & Social Science

Blog posts and resources relating to the relationship between physical science and social science.

Black and white wide-angle shot of cavernous building with people seated at large table facing banks of stadium seats.

Can We Trust the World Health Organization with So Much Power?

Robert Dingwall argues that the World health Organization has become a top-down, command-and-control approach, based on a narrow scientific base and the preferences, or prejudices, of a few major donors, that has failed to deliver in times of crisis.

1 month ago
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quartet in face masks

Face Masks and COVID – A Failed Technology

A model is only as good as its underlying simplifying assumptions and data, notes Robert Dingwall, and in the case of testing the effectiveness of face masks to combat the spread of COVID those data are, he argues, at best fragile.

3 months ago
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Stack of unused face masks in hospital setting

Face Masks for COVID: An Obituary?

While the full story will probably have to await the attention of historians, writes Robert Dingwall, but anyone who criticized masking was labeled as a peddler of disinformation.

4 months ago
2040

The Covid Pandemic in France: A Review

Henri Bergeron et al. Covid-19: Une Crise Organisationelle Sciences Po: Les Presses, 2020. 9782724626650Jean-Paul Gaudillière et al Pandémopolitiqiue La Découverte, […]

7 months ago
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Black and white photo of Will Hutton

Will Hutton on the State of Social Science

Political economist and journalist Will Hutton, author of the influential 1995 book The State We’re In, offers a state-of-the-field report on the social sciences in this Social Science Bites podcast.

7 months ago
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