Social Science Space

What might be one of the most severe effects of the pandemic. According to two psychologists who contributed to the […]

Our work in recent years has focused on how to prevent people from falling for misinformation in the first place, building on a framework from social psychology known as inoculation theory.

With this pandemic, argues Robert Dingwall, fear amplification has been policy, based on the advice of a particular group of behavioral scientists advising the United Kingdom’s government.

The reports from Britain’s hospitals in the last few days have been truly worrying. No one should doubt the reality […]

David Canter considers the tragic implications of people not understanding what they are told by politicians and experts.

It is possible that we could abolish death by COVID, argues Robert Dingwall, by continuing the restrictions of 2020 indefinitely – the problem, of course, is that we would simply die from something else.

The saga of the UK’s contact tracing app(s) should be an object lesson in how not to approach the use of technology in public policy – and why politicians in particular need to step back and rethink their approach to technology, and in particular to privacy.

Understanding how to create the conditions for a thriving civil society — that works in partnership with local governments and […]

David Canter considers why the social sciences failed to influence behavior in order to stop the spread of COVID-19. The virologists had been preparing for a new virus for some years, so were already ahead of the game when they had to start creating a new vaccine. What preparations had social psychologists, sociologists or anthropologists for the inevitable emergence of a new pandemic?

The pandemic has shaken our fieldwork activities to the core, if by fieldwork we mean working ‘in the field’. Even though it can be very demanding, we should adapt – when possible – to the new reality, and learn from it, writes Matteo Marenco

Kiren Shoman, the editorial director for SAGE Publishing, discusses what SAGE has learned from the higher ed sector as it reflects on how the pandemic response has affected teaching and what it expects once the new normal arrives.

Robert Dingwall summons the writings of Georg Simmel to present ‘crucial arguments against the break-up of urban life that is envisioned by some contemporary Utopians: the case against the 15-minute city needs to be heard.’