Product Description

MAKING SOCIAL SCIENCE MATTER presents an exciting new approach to social science. It has been praised across the social sciences--from political science, economics, and business administration to sociology and anthropology to urban and interdisciplinary studies--as a genuine breakthrough in the study of human affairs. Bent Flyvbjerg places the reflexive analysis of values and power at the core of study. His style of inquiry promotes and gives new meaning to the concept of praxis. Powerfully argued, with clear methodological guidelines and practical examples, Making Social Science Matter opens up a new future for the social sciences. Its empowering message will make it required reading for students and academics alike.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #715832 in Books
• Published on: 2001-03-15
• Original language: Danish
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 216 pages

Review
"Excellent ... timely ... a thoughtful vision of social science." -- AMERICAN POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEW

"Exceptional ... fascinating ... an open invitation ... should be read by all self-declared scientists of whatever persuasion." -- CURRENT ANTHROPOLOGY

"Fascinating ... thorough ... deserves wide and serious attention among social scientists and social policy planners and implementers." -- CHOICE

"Flyvbjerg's book is important and I would recommend it to all researchers of urban affairs ... a key reference." -- URBAN STUDIES

"Gives renewed hope and direction for the future of the social sciences ... compelling." -- INTERNATIONAL SOCIAL SCIENCE REVIEW

Review
"This is a book I have been waiting for for a long time. It opens up entirely new perspectives for social science by showing us that abandoning the aspiration to be like natural science is the beginning of wisdom about what we can and ought to be doing instead. It is a landmark book that deserves the widest possible reading and discussion." Robert Bellah, Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, at University of California, Berkeley

"[Flyvbjerg] convinces the reader that applied social sciences have a valuable destiny, and that context dependent research is worthwhile...this book provides researchers in the field of urban studies with very useful tools and guidelines for getting involved with case studies and context dependent research." CJUR

"This brilliant contextualization of social inquiry, hinging on both Aristotle and Foucault, gives new meaning to the concept of praxis. It will be of interest to everyone concerned with making democracy work." Ed Soja, School of Public Policy, University of California, Los Angeles

"This is social science that matters." Pierre Bourdieu, Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and Director of the Centre de Sociologie Européenne

"This brilliant contextualization of social inquiry, hinging on both Aristotle and Foucault, gives new meaning to the concept of praxis. It will be of interest to everyone concerned with making democracy work." Ed Soja, School of Public Policy, University of California, Los Angeles

"In seeking to move beyond the science wars, his engaging and thoughtful book provides welcome relief from the polemical arrogence of self-serving protagonists and uncritical analysts." Current Anthropology

"Flyvbjerg, author of Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice, an innovative, fine-grained and civically-engaged study of local power in Denmark, here reflects, in accessible and pleasurable prose, on large, challenging questions: What, fundamentally, makes social science different from natural science? Why is it relatively so poor in producing cumulative and predictive theories? What kinds of knowledge should it seek and with what methods? His answers, drawing on Nietzsche, Foucault, Bourdieu and others, are worth the close attention of those predisposed to reject them out of hand." Steven Lukes, New York University

"Flyvberg clearly demonstrates that there are models more appropriate to the social sciences than those derived from molecular biology, high-energy physics, the mathematical theory of games, and other up-market, hard-fact enterprises. But Flyvberg's suggestive, well-written little book both reviews most of the apparent possibilities and establishes standards (practical and political, ethical and methodological) by which to measure their progress." Science

"Flyvbjerg offers a strong case for his main thesis and, therefore, this work deserves wide and serious attention among social scientists and social policy planners and implementers." Choice

"This book is a thoughtful antidote to the simple views that see social science as a science like any other--positivistic science. It begins with a well-grounded empirical case of the development and application of expert knowledge, then... concludes with some salient observations based on the author's own feedback and research practice." Public Administration Quarterly

From the Publisher
INNOVATIVE: shows a new way for social science. COMPREHENSIVE: includes both theory and methodology. CONSTRUCTIVE: demonstrates how social science can succeed by focusing on context, the particular, values, and power. PRACTICAL: provides hands-on examples of practical application. RELEVANT: is used across the social and behavioral sciences, from politics and sociology to planning and management to nursing and psychology.

FOR COURSES IN: introduction to the social and behavioral sciences, social science research methods, philosophy of (social) science.

AT THE LEVEL OF: advanced undergraduate students and up.

16 PRINTINGS (English and Danish editions): makes this book an unparalleled bestseller in its field.

Customer Reviews

Empowering Stuff
On the back of this book is a short endorsement: "This is social science that matters." Fairly innocuous, I'm sure you'll agree. Yet it wasn't the quotation that caught my eye: rather the name of the endorser, one M. Pierre Bourdieu. As anyone familiar with his work will know, Bourdieu - currently the world's leading sociologist - does not endorse books, because (he argues) to do so is to play the 'back-slapping' and unmistakeably self-interested game of citations and counter-endorsements which makes or breaks today's academic careers. So why, then, does the ascetically-principled high priest of Sociology deign to break the habit of a lifetime for this unassuming work? The simple answer is: it really is that good. This is the first work of social theory/methodology for a long time which actually made me enthusiastic about the future of the social sciences outside the insulated groves of academia. By re-inventing the Aristotelian concept of "phronesis" - essentially a form of reasoning which is neither scientific (in the sense of following universal rules) nor technical (being something which is simply 'done' without rational reflection), but geared towards the "deliberation of values with reference to praxis" - Flyvbjerg finds a solid ground from which to start fighting back against previously devastating critiques which quite rightly ask questions such as "social science: so what?". Rather than seeking to answer this criticism by producing universal rules along the lines of the natural sciences, he argues, social science should aim to generate "power-conscious" interventions geared towards opening dialogue and generating consensus which will enable society to move forward. Social science, for Flyvbjerg, becomes an arena of expertise which seeks not to tell people "what to do" or "why they are doing", but rather to ask "where they are going" and "is this desirable?". As someone on the verge of 'losing his faith' in the pursuit of social science as a meangingful discipline with something to offer back to its object of study, this book has totally rejuvinated my enthusiasm and, as such, I find it hard to recommend it highly enough. Flyvbjerg is far from inscrutable - he falls back on unconvincing Habermasian talk of consensual validity when trying to explain how social research will actually make an impact, and his appropriation of Foucault and Nietzsche as methodological mentors makes me nervous - but for me this only adds to the book's charm. Consistent with the author's argument, no line of thought, not even the positivist search for 'socal rules', is rejected out of hand, but rather "thought through" in the hope of extracting the good bits and throwing out the waffle. And that is precisely how I believe this book should be read - and you definitely *should* read it - except that waffle is refreshingly thin on the ground.