Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 144 mm x 209 mm, Gewicht: 299 g
Realizing Better
Buch, Englisch, 240 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 144 mm x 209 mm, Gewicht: 299 g
ISBN: 978-0-19-786194-3
Verlag: Oxford University Press
At a time when the public badly want better public services, trustworthy politics, and a healthy biosphere, the social sciences have prioritized analysis and critique over design. Ours is a golden age of diagnosis but a dark age of prescription, which contributes to a widening gap between extraordinary technological dynamism and social stagnation. Exploratory Social Science shows how the social sciences can return to their best traditions and define pathways and options for the future: helping to change the world, rather than just interpreting it. The first use of the phrase "social science" came in a book two centuries ago which analysed social problems, including stark inequality, and proposed how they could be tackled. Mulgan argues we need similar combinations of analysis and prescription for current issues such as living with AI, declining birthrates, rampant disinformation, and rising global temperatures.
Exploratory Social Science investigates how to make the most of the many resources available to social science, from history to data analytics, studies of systems and complexity to methods from design and the arts. These can be used to shape options for tasks such as reinventing democracy and care or designing new public institutions Most social scientists want to use their knowledge to serve their societies, but in recent years have been discouraged from design by trends leaning towards narrow empiricism and away from creative imagination. Many younger social scientists think it career-threatening to move from analysis to prescription. This book shows how to harness their intellects and energy for the greater good.
Autoren/Hrsg.
Weitere Infos & Material
- Introduction: Explore, envision and enact
- Part I. Why Explore?
- 1: The purpose of the social sciences: Agency in the world
- 2: Why exploration became hard: Dilemmas, mistakes and misdirection
- 3: How to better understand the possible future
- 4: What to build on: Existing methods for social design
- Part II. How to Explore
- 5: Methods for exploratory social sciences
- 6: The structures and spaces for exploratory social science
- Part III. Applications
- 7: Some fields for exploratory social science
- 8: Theorizing exploration
- 9: Falsifiability and exploratory social science
- Part IV. Educating for Exploration
- 10: Learning exploratory social science
