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Why the Social Sciences?

The RG was concerned with the question of why we need the social sciences and what contribution they can make in modern societies. Although the social sciences have grown a lot over the last decades, and although they are better organised and their theories and concepts take on an important role in public debates, their role is being criticised and questioned. Two aspects are brought up regularly: an alleged over-specializing as well as the question of scientificity and the general use of the social sciences.

On the one hand, the social sciences are criticised for not predicting important social changes, for being too fragmented and over-specialized and having therefore lost the societal reference point. On a political level, on the other hand, the scientificity and the general use of the social sciences for society is questioned again and again. The demand, again and again, is to invest research funds into "proper science" such as biology, chemistry, geology or physics – fields in which discoveries would "actually improve the lives of every single one of us".

The RG was not about pitting scientific fields against each other. Rather, we wanted to work towards regarding different fields as equally important. In doing so, sorting out the different contributions of various fields was not the only task. A central question concerned the mutual influence. To what extent do the sciences need the social sciences (with ethical questions, politically relevant aspects, etc.), and how strongly have certain approaches and theories in the sciences influenced the work of the social sciences?

The involvement with these sorts of questions was to lead to self-reflection and encourage reflection on deficits in the various scientific fields. In the process, both scientific questions and questions of science policy were to be addressed.

Documentation of Events

In 2011, the RG organised an international conference together with cooperation partners.

Topic and Programm

participating Alumnae / Alumni

- Tilman Brück
  
  person_research_subject
  
  Development and agricultural economics
  
  institution
  
  Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
  
  E-mail
  
  tilman.brueck@hu-berlin.de
- Marc Helbling
  
  person_research_subject
  
  Sociology
  
  institution
  
  Universität Mannheim
  
  E-mail
  
  helbling@uni-mannheim.de
- Cornelis Menke
  
  person_research_subject
  
  Philosophy of Science
  
  institution
  
  Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz
  
  Phone
  
  +49 6131 39 20087
  
  E-mail
  
  cmenke@uni-mainz.de
- Evelyn Runge
  
  person_research_subject
  
  Political Science / Media and Cultural Studies / Journalism / Photography
  
  institution
  
  Universität zu Köln
  
  E-mail
  
  mail@evelyn-runge.de
- Carsten Q. Schneider
  
  person_research_subject
  
  Political Science
  
  institution
  
  Central European University
  
  E-mail
  
  schneiderc@ceu.edu
- Stefanie Walter
  
  person_research_subject
  
  Political Science
  
  institution
  
  Universität Zürich
  
  Phone
  
  +41 (44) 634 58 32
  
  E-mail
  
  walter@ipz.uzh.ch
- Jadwiga R. Ziolkowska
  
  person_research_subject
  
  Agricultural and environmental policy
  
  institution
  
  The University of Oklahoma (USA)
  
  E-mail
  
  jziolkowska@ou.edu

Documentation of Events

participating Alumnae / Alumni

Activities