Social Science Space

A year ago the potential impact of COVID-19 on precarious early career researchers (ECRs) looked bleak. Reporting on findings from the longitudinal Harbingers 2 project, David Nicholas suggests the effects of COVID-19 on ECR researchers have been varied internationally. Where pressures from the pandemic have been felt most acutely, particularly in the UK, US and France, it has often aligned with perceptions of ongoing structural issues within academia.

This round table discussion focuses on what it means to be a woman of color starting out a career in […]

Individuals find it harder to cover conference costs – and departments or research groups have fewer resources to support them. It is not hard to see why there is a sense of grievance. On the other hand, it is not so easy to see what can be done.

I am a Qualitative Social Scientist. I believe in that words tell you more than numbers and the emphasis on numbers in my current working environment has led me to think about why I feel so strongly about the importance of words and what Qualitative Social Science can offer the Commercial world. This leads me to make suggestions for ECRs considering leaving the Academy.

A study of 11,000 alumni from the University of Oxford has shown that humanities graduates went on to work in the UK’s major growth sectors. The Oxford study can’t tell us much about the fate of graduates at other universities around the UK. But it does prompt a closer look at the stigma surrounding humanities subjects in the UK.

An early-career researcher takes part in an old practice, and learns some very new ideas.

Sociology is a brand. To survive or even thrive in the academic marketplace, sociology needs to take care of its image. But at what cost?

Quantitative Skills (QS) can make you highly employable across many industries. Find out from these two entrepreneurs how their QS helped them succeed in the private sector.

I have argued repeatedly that Social Scientists have a lot to offer sectors outside of the Ivory Tower and it is time we stopped associating this with negative words like failure and selling out.

The extent to which academics in different situations own their time appears to be closely associated with the distribution of privilege. In an academic world that is elitist one needs to acquire privileges in order to have time.

Considering the relationship between researcher and institution – maybe the disclaimer isn’t enough.

Many PhD graduates are forced into the troubled world of unemployment while, at the same time, being denied a public voice. How is it that extremely narrow standards of professional legitimacy are used to judge young scholars who simply cannot meet them?