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A Brief History of Knowledge for Social Science Researchers: Before Method

How can we think about research? A gallery of heroes Nicolaus Copernicus 1473-1543, Poland Galileo Galilei 1554-1643, Italy Marie Curie 1867-1934, Poland, France John Dewey, 1859-1952, United States Michael Polanyi, 1891-1976, Hungary, England Rachel Carson, 1907-1964, United States Paulo Freire, 1921-1997, Brazil Notes References Epistemology and its relevance to research Knowledge and truth Epistemology: theories of knowledge Notes References A historical sketch of knowledge in the Western world: the Greeks through the Middle Ages Harmony in ancient Greek culture The practical technology of empire building in ancient Rome The spread of Christianity: faith as a central value in the early Middle Ages Gradual loosening of the strictures of religion, and the awakening of scientific inquiry in the later Middle Ages Notes References A historical sketch of knowledge in the Western world: from the Middle Ages to the Enlightenment The scientific revolution, the Renaissance and the rise of humanism How paper and the printing press changed the spread of knowledge in Europe The Protestant Reformation: opening the doors to freer thinking Revolutions, human rights and free agency The Enlightenment Notes References A historical sketch of knowledge in the Western world: from the Enlightenment onward The industrial revolution The development of general education Notes References Are we there yet? The birth and development of the social sciences Philosophy and her children Roots of the social sciences From positivism to post-positivism Non-positivist sociology, anthropology and the interpretive paradigm But really, what is a paradigm?Whither the paradigm wars?Notes References How can we think about theory? A gallery of heroes What is theory?Karl Popper 1902-1994 Thomas Kuhn 1922-1996 Imre Lakatos 1922-1974 Theory in the social sciences: continuing the gallery of heroes Jean Piaget 1896-1980 Margaret Mead 1901-1978 Erik Erikson 1902-1994 Pierre Bourdieu 1930-2002 Patricia Hill Collins 1948-So, what is theory?Notes References A brief history of knowledge, and the vistas beyond

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History of social science research in East Africa
The history of social science research in East Africa can be traced back to 1919 when practical applications of social science were first mentioned. In 1928, the International African Institute developed a five-year plan to coordinate scientific research activities with practical applications of the...
(African Environmental Crisis: A History of Science for Development)
Ageing and Infertility in Medical and Social Science Research
From a medical perspective, it is often emphasized that women face decreasing fertility and an increase in the risks of miscarriage and chromosomal abnormalities as they pass 40 years. For instance, a woman at the age of 45 has a one in 30 risk of having a child born with Down’s syndrome, whereas this...
(The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History: Approaches, Contexts and Perspectives)
Harm in Social Science Research
So far, I have only discussed medical experiments, so you might be thinking to yourself right now “That’s terrible, but criminologists don’t do medical experiments. We can’t possibly harm people in that way.” Very true. However, social scientists can still hurt people or put them in harm’s...
(Research Methods for Criminal Justice and Criminology: A Text and Reader)
Lineages Through Which Social Science Research “Comes to Life” in Political Agroecology
As researchers we are all immersed in disciplinary training, and as a result, the ethical assumptions embedded in academic disciplines (axiologies) affect how we approach and conduct research (our methodology and the methods we use). Rather than listing and reviewing methodological approaches associated...
(Urban Agroecology: Interdisciplinary Research and Future Directions)
Experimental and social science research
We used published agronomic and range science research to verify if the results reported supported the crisis hypothesis. We begin with the domain of agronomic and range science research as applied ecological ideas of development (Chapter 5). The agronomic and range science research were premised on...
(African Environmental Crisis: A History of Science for Development)
Social science research
Social science investigates cultural knowledge, perceptions and decisions concerning the management of nature by societies (Chapter 6). John Mackenzie96 describes the history of social science according to three premises. The first is that social science is based on social and cultural constructions...
(African Environmental Crisis: A History of Science for Development)
Social science research: Behavioral responses to development, 1919-1950
The application of social science research for development was first mentioned in the early twentieth century, but implementation did not start until the 1950s.1 In re-appraising the history of social science research in East Africa, we might therefore need to understand the processes and extent to which...
(African Environmental Crisis: A History of Science for Development)
Ecological and social science research
In Chapter 5, we developed a schematic framework to describe the responses of proxy environmental indicators to intensification of land use, in terms of either the equilibrium or disequilibrium hypothesis. Among the agronomic experiments we investigated were those concerned with loss of soil sediments,...
(African Environmental Crisis: A History of Science for Development)
Social science research of leisure in the 1920s
The onset of sociologists’ interest in time use and leisure phenomena can be traced to the very beginning of the 20th century. These beginnings are sometimes associated with the name of Franklin Giddings, Professor of Sociology at Columbia University, who gave his students practical assignments to...
(Time, Leisure and Well-Being)
Shared Principles in History and Social Science Education
Keith C. Barton In schools around the world, students study some combination of history and the social sciences. Although these are occasionally integrated into a single course or syllabus (sometimes with titles such as “social studies”), they are more often taught separately, especially in secondary...
(Palgrave Handbook of Research in Historical Culture and Education)