A doctoral program in the policy sciences

The complex nature of policy problems requires innovative approaches to problem analysis and a new social science interdiscipline focused on policy processes. The Policy Science Program at SUNY Buffalo is designed to advance this field and to train hybrid Ph.D.'s as research-scientists/practitioners. These new policy science professionals will augment policymaking organizations as policy analysts, evaluation researchers, knowledge brokers, research feedback disseminators, process monitors, and consultants. Their training must include research methodology, analytic approaches, orienting conceptual schemes from systems theory, social sciences, and specific problem domains, and operating skills. The curriculum includes both academic and field-training aspects.Though the program is oriented toward the applied sciences, it is an attempt to mold a version of the new combination of revised social science paradigms and analytic approaches identified by Dror as the Policy Sciences.     

Evaluating the Impacts of an Enhanced Family Self-Sufficiency Program

We conduct an impact analysis of the Denver, Colorado, Housing Authority’s Home Ownership Program (HOP) employing quasi experimental methodologies (i.e., nearest-neighbor matching, inverse probability weighting with regression adjustment) that permit causal inferences of program impacts with substantial confidence. HOP is an unusual, enhanced variant of the Family Self-Sufficiency program that incentivizes and assists participants’ purchase of a home. We analyze whether, compared with the control group, HOP participants exhibited significantly greater earnings growth during the program, enhanced economic security, and rates of home buying. We find that participants with a high intensity of treatment showed significant improvement in all outcomes. Results are robust to model specification and insensitive to omitted variable bias typically found in the social sciences. We conclude that a well-conceived and well-executed public housing authority program aimed at building the financial, human and social assets of low-income households receiving housing assistance can yield substantial benefits to participants.     

Some reflections on teaching demography in Mexico in the beginning of the twenty-first century: a new focus

The evolution and achievements of population studies programs at El Colegio de Mexico since the 1964 founding of the first master's program in demography in Latin America are described, and topics of interest for future research are identified. In 1995 the master's program and the doctoral program in social sciences with specialization in population studies were combined into a single program. Students are trained in demographic analysis, the methods of demographic research, the processes of development, and demographic theory. The program seeks to develop multidisciplinary orientations regarding links between population processes and social and economic factors. 67 students have obtained master's degrees and 8 the doctorate. The aging of the Mexican population resulting from its relatively rapid fertility decline suggests crucial topics for future research. The survival of 3 or even 4 generations, the reduced number of siblings, and other changes in family structure and relationships may generate research. Topics related to old age security for women, the effects of AIDS, internal and international migration patterns, and the demographic processes of the indigenous population are other significant topics. New employment opportunities in addition to the two traditional areas, academia and the public sector, should be sought for demography graduates in business and industry and in regional educational and planning centers.     

关于杰出人文社科学者评价模式研究——以1948年"人文院士"评选为参照

本文以1948年"人文院士"的评选为参照,对现阶段社会各界所推出的杰出人文社科学者评价模式进行了评析,指出"人文社科院士"须由权威性的学术机构所组织的同行评议方式产生。     

Practice and research in managing human systems—Four problems of relationship

Academic disciplines, it is argued, have structural reasons for remaining separate from each other. Professional schools, on the other hand, having a built-in test of relevance, draw what they need from different disciplines and are better equipped for inter-disciplinary work, even though they have problems in bridging professional boundaries. But the professions which manage human systems (management, government, planning, policy making) have no such support from the social sciences as, for example, medicine and engineering draw from the natural sciences. They have evolved powerful means of modelling complex human systems but they lack any adequate source of the assumptions needed for such models, since these are culture-determined and historically determined variables, far more dependent on specific time and place.The paper raises for discussion questions related to (a) the inter-relation of the social sciences; (b) their relation to the professional fields in which they might be applied; (c) their relation to the management sciences; and (d) the scope for an all-embracing general systems theory.     

Testing What Matters (If You Must Test at All): A Context‐Driven Approach to Substantive and Statistical Significance

For over a half century, various fields in the behavioral and social sciences have debated the appropriateness of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) in the presentation and assessment of research results. A long list of criticisms has fueled the so‐called significance testing controversy. The conventional NHST framework encourages researchers to devote excessive attention to statistical significance while underemphasizing practical (e.g., scientific, substantive, social, political) significance. I introduce a simple, intuitive approach that grounds testing in subject‐area expertise, balancing the dual concerns of detectability and importance. The proposed practical and statistical significance test allows the social scientist to test for real‐world significance, taking into account both sampling error and an assessment of what parameter values should be deemed interesting, given theory. The matter of what constitutes practical significance is left in the hands of the researchers themselves, to be debated as a natural component of inference and interpretation.     

Welfare Reform and Models of Public Policy: Why Policy Sciences Are Required

Policy could be studied on the basis of three different models: ideological, social science, and policy sciences. Policy in accordance with ideology may not necessarily rely on solid rigorous research to back it up. Policy made solely in accordance with a rigorous social science model might be able to demonstrate a causal relationship between a given policy and desired outcomes, and in the process establish a clear role for good research in the policy process. But it often fails to account for the larger social and political context in which policy is formulated. Good policy should be based on rigorous social science research, while also factoring in the values of the broader society, that is, ideology. This would imply that in order to bridge the gap, that good policy should be formulated in accordance with the policy sciences model because it connects the rigorous methodology of the social sciences with the larger social policy context, that is, the broader policy process. When analyzing the reform of 1996 within the framework of these models, it becomes clear that while the legislation is highly ideological, it is not based on any serious research that would satisfy the criteria of the social science model. It fails the policy sciences model, in part, because its absence of clearly defined objectives, or a single objective, makes the task of measurement difficult. On the contrary, this legislation is a good example of why the policy community would do better to rely more on the policy sciences.     

Introduction by P. A. J. Waddington

‘Governance’ (as distinct from ‘government’)has become a term of art throughout the social sciences overthe past decade or so as scholars have struggled to understandthe complexities of contemporary social changes. This is feltin all corners of society, but has particular relevance to thepolice who have traditionally been regarded as the sole custodiansof state sovereignty, which lies in the capacity to use legitimateforce over its own citizens. This monopoly is being increasinglyeroded as the wider ‘police family’ becomes evermore populous. This reflects, in my estimation, two fundamental realities.First is the indefinite nature of the police role. As the pioneeringpolice research, Egon     

The Dark Side of Social Capital Re-examined from a Policy Analysis Perspective: Networks of Trust and Corruption

Abstract

This work deepens the analysis of the “dark side” of social capital proposed by Alejandro Portes and Patricia Landlot and revisited by Peter Graeff. For this purpose, it combines the individualistic approach of economic theory with the social perspective of other social sciences to study the economics of corruption embedded in a social structure (a network of trust). It assesses the importance of social relations as a necessary condition to achieve corrupt objectives. To do so, a model of corrupt public contracts embedded in networks of trust is built. Theoretical evidence is found on the importance of networks of trust for the success of corrupt deals between officials and recipients. In addition, seeds are sown for future research and analysis of the role of institutions and monitoring agencies. Finally, the foundation is laid for research in the field of experimental economics to conduct an empirical examination of this proposed model and some policy implications are derived.     

A Critical Theory of Social Suffering

Abstract

This paper begins by defending the twofold relevance, political and theoretical, of the notion of social suffering. Social suffering is a notion politics cannot do without today, as it seems indispensable to describe all the aspects of contemporary injustice. As such, it has been taken up in a number of significant research programmes in different social sciences (sociology, anthropology, social psychology). The notion however poses significant conceptual problems as it challenges disciplinary boundaries traditionally set up to demarcate individual and social phenomena. I argue that philosophy has a role to play in the attempt to integrate the diverging perspectives stemming from the social sciences. I attempt to show that, as it engages with the social sciences to account for the conceptual and normative issues thrown open by the question of social suffering, philosophy in fact retrieves the very idea of critical theory, as a conjugated critique of social reality and of its knowledge. I conclude by showing how the question of social suffering then becomes a useful criterion to distinguish between the different existing approaches in critical theory.     

Prolegomena to policy sciences

Establishment of policy sciences as a new supradiscipline involves a scientific revolution, requiring fargoing innovations in basic paradigms. Particularly essential are: (1) Integration between various disciplines, and especially of social sciences with analytical decision approaches; (2) bridging of the pure vs. applied dichotomy; (3) acceptance of tacit knowledge as a scientific resource; (4) changes in interface between science and values; (5) broad time perspectives; (6) focus on metapolicies; (7) commitment to policymaking improvement; and (8) concern with extrarational and irrational processes, such as creativity.Unique subjects of policy sciences, opened up by these paradigms, include, among others: (a) Policy analysis, which involves critical changes in systems analysis so as to permit application to complex policy issues; (b) policy strategies, involving determination of postures and main guidelines for specific policies, such as on degrees of incrementalism vs. innovation and on attitudes to risks; and (c) policymaking system redesign, including evaluation and improvement of the policymaking system, e.g., through changes in one-person-centered high-level decisionmaking, development of politicians, and institutionalization of social experimentation.Development of policy sciences requires many innovations in research, teaching, and professional activities. It constitutes a main effort to reconstruct the role of intellectualism and rationality in human affairs and, therefore, justifies intense efforts.Parts of this article are based on papers delivered at the 136th Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (Boston, 26–31 December 1969) and at the 65th Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association (New York, 2–6 September 1969).     

The quantitative methods component in social sciences curricula in view of journal content

What level of quantitative methods (or applied statistical analysis) should graduate students in the social sciences be prepared to master, if they are to be competitive in the job market? In the age of information technology, more data, in survey or other form, about any imaginable topic exist than ever before. Empirical analysis on the basis of more advanced quantitative methods becomes more common. This study takes the perspective that graduate students in the social sciences must be prepared to read a literature that makes extensive use of quantitative methods. To quantify this dimension of the literature, top journals in economics, political science, public administration, and sociology are examined for their quantitative complexity.     

Reflections on a coy field: Methodology,criticism and careerism

This essay works on the assumption that while scholars are historicizing (unevenly) and giving academic standing to the study of queer materials, especially in the humanities and social sciences, the status of these same disciplines is in question, at least in the North American university. The first section examines problematic positionings of the ‘critical object’ for queer study and theorizing. The second profiles that critique against two influential commentaries on the ‘transnational university’ and the place of the humanities, Bill Readings's melancholic assessment of ‘the university in ruins’ and John Guillory's pragmatic conclusion that curricula in the humanities generate ‘cultural capital’.     

Proposed fiscal year 1997 budgets for social and behavioral science research

COSSA is the advocate in Washington for the social and behavioral sciences. He also chairs the Coalition for National Science Funding. He has testified before Congress many times and has written and spoken extensively on legislative-executive relations, the federal budget process and science policy, particularly as it affects the social and behavioral sciences. This report was prepared by the author with the assistance of the COSSA staff.     

Scaling up Utopias: E.O. Wright and the Search for Economic Alternatives

For over fifty years, successive waves of critique have underscored that the apolitical character of much of political science research betrays the founding mission of the discipline to have science serve democracy. The Caucus for a New Political Science was originally based on such a critique, and the perestroika movement in the discipline included a call for more problem-driven as opposed to theory- or method-driven work that would better connect political science research to ongoing political struggles. In recent years, movements for a public sociology and public anthropology as well as dissonant movements in economics and related fields have added to the insistence that social science research was too often disconnected from the real world. Phronetic social science has emerged out of the ferment for change in the social sciences, starting with the much-debated book by Bent Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter (Cambridge, 2001). Flyvbjerg critiqued the social sciences for mimicking the natural sciences, while proposing an alternative approach that focuses research on helping people address the problems they are facing. Today, phronetic social science goes beyond the call for an alternative approach to social inquiry and its growing adherents are providing evidence that this alternative approach to doing research can enrich the social sciences by more effectively connecting research to efforts to address real world problems as people experience them. This article provides a genealogy of efforts to connect political science to politics, a review of the major critiques of mainstream research, an explication of the rationale for more problem-driven, mixed-methods research, a specification of the key principles of the phronetic approach, and examples of its application in the public realm. The article concludes with implications for realizing a more political political science by way of taking a phronetic approach.     

“三重三轻”:科研激励机制刍议

哲学社会科学激励是科研管理活动中一项重要的内容,有效的、科学的科研激励机制可以极大地激发科研人员的积极性和创造性,从而达到多出成果特别是精品成果、多出人才特别是拔尖人才的目的。本文侧重梳理了社科院系统的科研激励机制现状,并分析其中存在的问题,即重低层次激励、轻国家级政府激励,重成果、轻学者,重精神激励、轻物质激励,最后提出改进和完善科研激励机制的对策和建议。     

On Marx's theory of agricultural rent: A reply to Ben Fine

This article criticizes both the 'Marxist' and 'sociological' conceptualizations of money to be found in the recent debate between Fine, Lapavitsas and Zelizer in Economy and Society . They neglect important contributions to the theory of money, especially the 'credit' and 'state' theories of money in the social sciences. These emphasize, as did Keynes, the central theoretical importance of money of account . These approaches were banished from orthodox economics and lost to sociology in the post- Methodenstreit division of intellectual labour in the social sciences. Marxist economics has never properly addressed this monetary analysis. Although neglected, it is not obscure and informs the more widely known post-Keynesian theory of money. This article argues that these heterodox theories of money are essentially sociological in that they involve the conceptualization of money as abstract value constituted by the social relation of the 'promise to pay'.     

Theory of science and history of science

The article uses an interesting discussion between historian and philosopher of science as point of departure for a brief examination of the special task of the sociology of sciences. Both historian and philosopher proceed according to certain ritualised conventions. They take it for granted that it is possible, today as in the seventeenth century, to work out a theory of science by concentrating on one science only, on theoretical physics. They are unable to come to grips with the diversification of sciences as a theoretical problem. The growth of a single science itself is treated by them as if it were an absolutely autonomous social development. A sociological theory of sciences has to take account of the observable advance of scientific knowledge into areas of the universe that were previously unknown or inaccessible to scientific exploration. It has to take account for instance of the emergence of biological and social sciences both as a science-immanent and a science-transcendent problem. Philosophers and historians of science have constructed a seemingly impenetrable conceptual wall between immanent and transcendent developments. According to them, ‘internal’ history of a science can be treated as independent of ‘external’ history. The article indicates that this is part of a professional ideology. By claiming absolute autonomy for one's subject matter one tries to secure the absolute autonomy of one's profession. If that claim is abandoned the fashionable problem of continuities and discontinuities in the development of sciences appears in a different light. Neither discontinuity nor autonomy of a scientific development can ever be absolute. Its relative autonomy, however, can grow or diminish. That of physics, for instance, is at present noticeably greater than that of sociology. One may well ask why that is the case. That is the kind of problem which requires a sociological as distinct from a philosophical or historical investigation.     

Undergraduate Research at Two-Year Community Colleges

There is a growing movement in academia that focuses on increased efforts at undergraduate research. Historically, this movement has been driven by faculty in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields and has only recently become a focus for social sciences in general and political science in particular. For students to be successful at conducting undergraduate research, they should be exposed to it as soon as they are ready. This requires exposing students to undergraduate research in the freshmen and sophomore years. There is no reason this exposure should be limited to four-year institutions. To that end, a new journal has been created for students in political science and other social science courses at two-year colleges so they can be recognized for their undergraduate research. The Social Science Text and Academic Research (STAR) Journal is a peer/faculty-reviewed journal limited to students at two-year colleges.     

政策科学的演进逻辑与范式变迁

政策科学作为一门应用性跨学科研究的新兴学科,在世界各国和各领域因其能解决社会现实问题而蓬勃发展。随着中国改革开放的不断深入,外部环境复杂多变,政策科学势必面临各种新的挑战。文章以政策科学的发展过程为研究对象,系统梳理国内外文献,归纳总结政策科学发展的三个阶段及其演进逻辑,提炼出政策科学研究范式的转换路径。同时,文章针对现阶段政策科学研究存在的问题——对民主性或科学性的盲目追求,提出今后政策科学应当促进民主与科学的融合以及跨学科研究,紧密结合中国的实际情况,创新政策科学理论与方法,推动中国政策科学的繁荣发展。