Este é o primeiro post da série “A utilidade das Ciência Sociais”

Por Andy Inch

I’ll start by saying something that a relatively new member of an academic research group in a dedicated Institute of Social Sciences probably shouldn’t own up to but sometimes I’m not really sure of the value of academic social science research.

There, I’ve admitted it.

But I don’t think this is just a crisis of self-identity. Questions about the role and purpose of social research are vital, and perhaps have particular relevance to those of us working in more applied areas of the so-called social sciences. With budgets for research funding likely to come under increasing pressure across Europe, they are also likely to have much wider significance in the near future.

Like many others, I came to research out of a fuzzy belief that knowledge can improve society – this was underpinned by a set of equally fuzzy commitments to the creation of more socially just, democratic and environmentally sustainable ways of life. Unfortunately, steeped in the pseudo-scientific search for objectivity much ‘traditional’ social research still prefers to hide away any trace of such normative values. Shaped by increasing disciplinary specialization and the prevailing model of academic publishing, meanwhile, I worry that our practices often resemble a retreat from the complexities of the world rather than a serious attempt to engage with how we can play a part in changing it for the better.
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