Social Science Space

A space to explore, share and shape the issues facing social scientists

Tag: Impact

Leadership and the UK General Election 2017

By Robert Dingwall | Published: June 2, 2017

For social scientists, there must be a concern that a generation’s worth of accumulated empirical evidence on effective leadership has made so little impact on the candidates in the upcoming General Election in the United Kingdom.

Posted in Impact, News, Public Engagement, Public Policy | Also tagged British politics, leadership, political parties, UK General Election | Leave a comment

Let’s Play Fantasy Football for Big Thinkers

By Mark Beeson | Published: February 23, 2015

If you were to make up a fantasy football team for, say an intellectual Premier League, which thinks from Socrates forward might be among your picks?

Posted in Impact, Recognition | Also tagged The Conversation | Leave a comment

Quantophrenia is Back in Town

By Robert Dingwall | Published: May 27, 2014

Many social scientists find themselves members of a cult of quantification, argues Robert Dingwall, in love with numbers for their own sake even when those numbers produce no useful knowledge.

Posted in News, Public Policy, Research, Teaching | Also tagged ESRC, Policy, Research, Social Research, Social Science Research, Statistics | 3 Responses

Tamiflu and the Ethics of the British Medical Journal

By Robert Dingwall | Published: April 15, 2014

No one expected Tamiflu to be a wonder drug, but indications are that it's moderately useful in fighting a serious public health threat. But that message was lost last week in an ill-starred rush to beat up on 'wicked' Big Pharma, argues Robert Dingwall.

Posted in Featured, Impact, News, Public Policy, Research Ethics, Science & Social Science | Also tagged Ethics, pandemic, Pharmaceuticals, Policy, Sociology of health | 5 Responses

The Ethics of Impact

By Robert Dingwall | Published: October 15, 2013

Back in the summer, John Holmwood, the current BSA President, sent me an email about impact and research ethics. Various contingencies have got in the way of discussing his concerns – but they are important. John’s argument, in essence, is that the implications of the UK impact agenda for research ethics have been overlooked, and […]

Posted in Impact, News, Public Engagement, Public Policy, Research, Research Ethics | Also tagged Ethics, Policy, Research, Research Funding, Social Research, Social Science, Social Science Research | Leave a comment

Lessons from civil society

By LSE Impact | Published: August 24, 2013

As academics think about impact, they can draw on some of the lessons and strategic approaches used by civil society and campaigning groups.

Posted in International Debates | Also tagged Andy Martin, Civil Society, consultancy, LSE, Theory of Change | Leave a comment

Why Social Science Education is as Important as STEM…

By Robert Dingwall | Published: July 26, 2013

A recent Ipsos-Mori survey reveals the crucial role that social science has to play in modern democracy, a role which is frequently sabotaged.

Posted in Featured, Impact, International Debates, News, Public Engagement, Public Policy | Also tagged Demography, Immigration, Ipsos Mori, Kwasi Kwarteng, Policy, Professor Tomaney, Race, Royal Statistical Society, Social Science, Social Science Research | 1 Response

Social Science Must Change to Realise Its Full Value

By Academy of Social Sciences | Published: July 8, 2013

Social scientists have nothing to fear from the impact agenda, but must be more willing to talk to “strangers” such as the government in order to realise their full value - a talk by Prof. John Brewer

Posted in International Debates, News, Public Engagement, Public Policy | Also tagged Academy of Social Sciences, John Brewer, Policy Intervention, Public Engagement, Social Science | Leave a comment

Please – Not a Heroic Impact Narrative

By Pat Thompson | Published: April 15, 2013

Recently I’ve seen a lot of hero/heroine narratives. They now seem to be popping up in research impact plans and claims about impact.

Posted in Impact, International Debates, News, Research Ethics | Also tagged Evidence-Based Policy, Heroic narrative, Pat THompson, Policy, Research, Social Science, Welfare | Leave a comment

Open Access increases citation? A brief overview of two reports

By Kamil Mizera | Published: March 26, 2013

A comparison of two studies on the coverage and range of citations in Open Access, comparing OA and non-OA journals.

Posted in Impact, International Debates, News, Open Access | Also tagged Academic Publishing, Citations, Comparison, Downloads, Graph, Journals, Michael Norris, OA, Open Access | 3 Responses

Economic Inequality and Political Power (Part 1 of 3)

By The Monkey Cage | Published: August 16, 2012

If policy influence becomes so unequal that the wishes of most citizens are ignored most of the time, a country’s claim to be a democracy is cast in doubt. And that is exactly what I found in my analyses of the link between public preferences and government policy in the U.S.

Posted in Featured, Impact, International Debates, News, Public Policy | Also tagged Affluence and Influence, Democracy, Economic Inequality, Economics, Graphs, Inequality, Martin Gilens, middle class, Policy, Political Science, The Monkey Cage | Leave a comment

“Treated like imbeciles”

By Leo McCann | Published: May 28, 2012

While parts of Aditya Chakrabortty’s recent piece in the Guardian were sensible and informed, its central claim was unfair - that social science disciplines have been unable or unwilling to explore, explain, and confront the ‘Great Financial Crash’ of 2007-9

Posted in Featured, International Debates, News, Public Engagement, Public Policy, Teaching | Also tagged Aditya Chakrabortty, Bob Carter, financial crisis, HM Revenue & Customs, Leo McCann, Social Science, Sociology, Sociology of Organization Study, Sociology of Work, Sociology of Work and Organization Studies | Leave a comment

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Social Science Bites
- David Spiegelhalter on Communicating Statistics April 2, 2018
- Sander van der Linden on Viral Altruism March 1, 2018
- Melinda Mills on Sociogenomics February 1, 2018
- Jo Boaler on Fear of Mathematics January 2, 2018

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