Social science
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For the integrated field of study intended to promote civic competence, see Social
studies. For the social-political-economic theory first pioneered by Karl Marx,
see Scientific socialism.
"Social Sciences" redirects here. For other uses, see Social Sciences (disambiguation).
Archaeology is one of the social sciences.
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Social science is the branch of science devoted to the study of societies and
the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used
to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of society", established in the 19th
century. In addition to sociology, it now encompasses a wide array of academic
disciplines, including anthropology, archaeology, economics, human
geography, linguistics, management science, media studies, political
science, psychology, and social history. (For a more detailed list of sub-disciplines
within the social sciences see: Outline of social science.)
Positivist social scientists use methods resembling those of the natural sciences as
tools for understanding society, and so define science in its stricter modern
sense. Interpretivist social scientists, by contrast, may use social critique or symbolic
interpretation rather than constructing empirically falsifiable theories, and thus treat
science in its broader sense. In modern academic practice, researchers are
often eclectic, using multiple methodologies (for instance, by combining
both quantitative and qualitative research). The term "social research" has also acquired
a degree of autonomy as practitioners from various disciplines share the same aims and
methods.
Contents
1History
2Branches
o 2.1Anthropology
o 2.2Communication studies
o 2.3Economics
o 2.4Education
o 2.5Geography
o 2.6History
o 2.7Law
o 2.8Linguistics
o 2.9Political science
o 2.10Psychology
o 2.11Sociology
3Additional fields of study
4Methodology
o 4.1Social research
o 4.2Theory
5Education and degrees
6Low priority of social science
7See also
o 7.1General
o 7.2Methods
o 7.3Areas
o 7.4History
o 7.5Lists
o 7.6People
o 7.7Other
8Notes
9References
10Bibliography
o 10.120th and 21st centuries sources
o 10.219th century sources
o 10.3General sources
o 10.4Academic resources
o 10.5Opponents and critics
11External links
History[edit]
Early censuses and surveys provided demographic data.
Main article: History of the social sciences
The history of the social sciences begins in the Age of Enlightenment after 1650,[1] which
saw a revolution within natural philosophy, changing the basic framework by which
individuals understood what was "scientific". Social sciences came forth from the moral
philosophy of the time and were influenced by the Age of Revolutions, such as
the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution.[2] The social sciences developed
from the sciences (experimental and applied), or the systematic knowledge-bases or
prescriptive practices, relating to the social improvement of a group of interacting
entities.[3][4]
The beginnings of the social sciences in the 18th century are reflected in the grand
encyclopedia of Diderot, with articles from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other pioneers.
The growth of the social sciences is also reflected in other specialized encyclopedias.
The modern period saw "social science" first used as a distinct conceptual field. [5] Social
science was influenced by positivism,[2] focusing on knowledge based on actual positive
sense experience and avoiding the negative; metaphysical speculation was
avoided. Auguste Comte used the term "science sociale" to describe the field, taken
from the ideas of Charles Fourier; Comte also referred to the field as social physics.[2][6]
Following this period, five paths of development sprang forth in the social sciences,
influenced by Comte in other fields.[2] One route that was taken was the rise of social
research. Large statistical surveys were undertaken in various parts of the United States
and Europe. Another route undertaken was initiated by Émile Durkheim, studying "social
facts", and Vilfredo Pareto, opening metatheoretical ideas and individual theories. A
third means developed, arising from the methodological dichotomy present, in
which social phenomena were identified with and understood; this was championed by
figures such as Max Weber. The fourth route taken, based in economics, was
developed and furthered economic knowledge as a hard science. The last path was
the correlation of knowledge and social values;
the antipositivism and verstehen sociology of Max Weber firmly demanded this
distinction. In this route, theory (description) and prescription were non-overlapping
formal discussions of a subject.
The foundation of social sciences in the West implies conditioned relationships between
progressive and traditional spheres of knowledge. In some contexts, such as the Italian
one, sociology slowly affirms itself and experiences the difficulty of affirming a strategic
knowledge beyond philosophy and theology (Cfr. Guglielmo Rinzivillo, La scienza e
l'oggetto. Autocritica del sapere strategico, Milan, Franco Angeli editor, 2010, p. 51 e
sg. ISBN 978-88-568-2487-2).
Around the start of the 20th century, Enlightenment philosophy was challenged in
various quarters. After the use of classical theories since the end of the scientific
revolution, various fields substituted mathematics studies for experimental studies and
examining equations to build a theoretical structure. The development of social science
subfields became very quantitative in methodology. The interdisciplinary and cross-
disciplinary nature of scientific inquiry into human behaviour, social and environmental
factors affecting it, made many of the natural sciences interested in some aspects of
social science methodology.[7] Examples of boundary blurring include emerging
disciplines like social research
of medicine, sociobiology, neuropsychology, bioeconomics and
the history and sociology of science. Increasingly, quantitative research and qualitative
methods are being integrated in the study of human action and its implications and
consequences. In the first half of the 20th century, statistics became a free-standing
discipline of applied mathematics. Statistical methods were used confidently.
In the contemporary period, Karl Popper and Talcott Parsons influenced the furtherance
of the social sciences.[2] Researchers continue to search for a unified consensus on what
methodology might have the power and refinement to connect a proposed "grand
theory" with the various midrange theories that, with considerable success, continue to
provide usable frameworks for massive, growing data banks; for more, see consilience.
The social sciences will for the foreseeable future be composed of different zones in the
research of, and sometime distinct in approach toward, the field. [2]
The term "social science" may refer either to the specific sciences of society established
by thinkers such as Comte, Durkheim, Marx, and Weber, or more generally to all
disciplines outside of "noble science" and arts. By the late 19th century, the academic
social sciences were constituted of five fields: jurisprudence and amendment of
the law, education, health, economy and trade, and art.[3]
Around the start of the 21st century, the expanding domain of economics in the social
sciences has been described as economic imperialism.[8]
Branches[edit]
For a topical guide to this subject, see Outline of social science § Branches of social
science.
Social science areas
The following are problem areas and
discipline branches within the social
sciences.[2]
Anthropology
Area studies
Business studies
Civics
Communication studies
Criminology
Demography
Development studies
Economics
Education
Environmental studies
Folkloristics
Gender studies
Geography
History
Industrial relations
Information science
Law
Library science
Linguistics
Media studies
Political science
Psychology
Public administration
Sociology
Social work
Sustainable development
The social science disciplines are branches of knowledge taught and researched at the
college or university level. Social science disciplines are defined and recognized by
the academic journals in which research is published, and the learned social science
societies and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong.
Social science fields of study usually have several sub-disciplines or branches, and the
distinguishing lines between these are often both arbitrary and ambiguous.
Anthropology[edit]
Main articles: Anthropology and Outline of anthropology
Anthropology is the holistic "science of man", a science of the totality of human
existence. The discipline deals with the integration of different aspects of the social
sciences, humanities, and human biology. In the twentieth century, academic disciplines
have often been institutionally divided into three broad domains. The natural
sciences seek to derive general laws through reproducible and verifiable experiments.
The humanities generally study local traditions, through their history, literature, music,
and arts, with an emphasis on understanding particular individuals, events, or eras.
The social sciences have generally attempted to develop scientific methods to
understand social phenomena in a generalizable way, though usually with methods
distinct from those of the natural sciences.
The anthropological social sciences often develop nuanced descriptions rather than the
general laws derived in physics or chemistry, or they may explain individual cases
through more general principles, as in many fields of psychology. Anthropology (like
some fields of history) does not easily fit into one of these categories, and different
branches of anthropology draw on one or more of these domains. [9] Within the United
States, anthropology is divided into four sub-fields: archaeology, physical or biological
anthropology, anthropological linguistics, and cultural anthropology. It is an area that is
offered at most undergraduate institutions. The word anthropos (ἄνθρωπος) in Ancient
Greek means "human being" or "person". Eric Wolf described sociocultural
anthropology as "the most scientific of the humanities, and the most humanistic of the
sciences".
The goal of anthropology is to provide a holistic account of humans and human nature.
This means that, though anthropologists generally specialize in only one sub-field, they
always keep in mind the biological, linguistic, historic and cultural aspects of any
problem. Since anthropology arose as a science in Western societies that were complex
and industrial, a major trend within anthropology has been a methodological drive to
study peoples in societies with more simple social organization, sometimes called
"primitive" in anthropological literature, but without any connotation of "inferior". [10] Today,
anthropologists use terms such as "less complex" societies or refer to specific modes
of subsistence or production, such as "pastoralist" or "forager" or "horticulturalist" to
refer to humans living in non-industrial, non-Western cultures, such people or folk
(ethnos) remaining of great interest within anthropology.
The quest for holism leads most anthropologists to study a people in detail, using
biogenetic, archaeological, and linguistic data alongside direct observation of
contemporary customs.[11] In the 1990s and 2000s, calls for clarification of what
constitutes a culture, of how an observer knows where his or her own culture ends and
another begins, and other crucial topics in writing anthropology were heard. It is
possible to view all human cultures as part of one large, evolving global culture. These
dynamic relationships, between what can be observed on the ground, as opposed to
what can be observed by compiling many local observations remain fundamental in any
kind of anthropology, whether cultural, biological, linguistic or archaeological. [12]
Communication studies[edit]
Main articles: Communication studies and History of communication studies
Communication studies deals with processes of human communication, commonly
defined as the sharing of symbols to create meaning. The discipline encompasses a
range of topics, from face-to-face conversation to mass media outlets such as television
broadcasting. Communication studies also examines how messages are interpreted
through the political, cultural, economic, and social dimensions of their contexts.
Communication is institutionalized under many different names at different universities,
including "communication", "communication studies", "speech communication",
"rhetorical studies", "communication science", "media studies", "communication arts",
"mass communication", "media ecology", and "communication and media science".
Communication studies integrates aspects of both social sciences and the humanities.
As a social science, the discipline often overlaps with sociology, psychology,
anthropology, biology, political science, economics, and public policy, among others.
From a humanities perspective, communication is concerned with rhetoric and
persuasion (traditional graduate programs in communication studies trace their history
to the rhetoricians of Ancient Greece). The field applies to outside disciplines as well,
including engineering, architecture, mathematics, and information science.