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Introduction: The power of pragmatism

Jane Wills and Robert W. Lake

in The power of pragmatism: Knowledge production and social inquiry

This chapter provides a thorough introduction to an edited book that comprises fifteen chapters exploring the power of pragmatism in relation to social research and the production of knowledge. The ... More

This chapter provides a thorough introduction to an edited book that comprises fifteen chapters exploring the power of pragmatism in relation to social research and the production of knowledge. The chapter outlines the historical development of the pragmatist tradition and its core ideas before exploring its application to social research, past and present. We make a strong case for pragmatic social research, outline its key components and highlight its implications for research practice and outcomes. In the penultimate section, we address some of the long-standing concerns about pragmatism in order to provide critical context to the chapters in the rest of the book. The final section introduces the structure of the book and summarises the substantive chapters that follow.Less

Wittgenstein & Social Theory

John G. Gunnell

in Social Inquiry After Wittgenstein and Kuhn: Leaving Everything as It Is

This chapter provides a summary of how Wittgenstein's work addresses the practices of the social and human sciences, beginning with an examination of Peter Winch's The Idea of a Social Science. ... More

This chapter provides a summary of how Wittgenstein's work addresses the practices of the social and human sciences, beginning with an examination of Peter Winch's The Idea of a Social Science. Winch's text captures the general significance of Wittgenstein's work for conceptualizing the theory and practice of social inquiry. Social phenomena are inherently related to forms of social life, and Wittgenstein's work establishes a theoretical account of the nature of conventional phenomena. The chapter distinguishes between first-order/constructive/presentational and second-order/reconstructive/representational forms of inquiry, the distinction of which is considered as the pivotal difference between the natural and the human sciences. In addition, the chapter further elaborates on the concepts of interpretation and understanding.Less

Habits of social inquiry and reconstruction: A Deweyan vision of democracy and social research

Malcolm P. Cutchin

in The power of pragmatism: Knowledge production and social inquiry

Social scientists have begun to re-evaluate and incorporate some of pragmatist John Dewey’s insights into their work. This chapter explores the role of habit in John Dewey’s understanding of human ... More

Social scientists have begun to re-evaluate and incorporate some of pragmatist John Dewey’s insights into their work. This chapter explores the role of habit in John Dewey’s understanding of human psychology and culture, opening up connections to his associated ideas of embodiment, imagination, inquiry and community, all of which are central to his concept of democracy. The formation, implementation and modification of habits – whether viewed as individual-level, community-level or cultural-level – are central to the problem of adept democratic activity and social functioning. After explaining Dewey’s meaning of, and emphasis on, habit and its correlates, I suggest how time, culture, place and criticism are important considerations within Dewey’s vision of democracy and inquiry. In the closing section of the chapter, I turn to the more applied side of the matter and sketch out some potential implications of these ideas for doing social research and for social science as part of the university that engages in community life.Less

Introduction

John G. Gunnell

in Social Inquiry After Wittgenstein and Kuhn: Leaving Everything as It Is

This introductory chapter asserts that Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy forms the basis of a theory and method of social inquiry, and that Thomas Kuhn's statement of transformations in natural ... More

This introductory chapter asserts that Ludwig Wittgenstein's philosophy forms the basis of a theory and method of social inquiry, and that Thomas Kuhn's statement of transformations in natural science exemplifies the kind of investigation that Wittgenstein's philosophy required and predicted. It presents the book's two primary themes that revolve around recurring issues in philosophy and the social and human sciences: the relationship between thought and language; and between interpretation and the object of interpretation. The chapter looks at the works of Wittgenstein and Kuhn in relation to these issues, and argues that their work is about the nature of the conventions represented in language and various human practices, the epistemological problems involved in understanding the meaning of such phenomena, the methodological issue of how to interpret and convey that meaning, and the practical dimension of the relationship between philosophy and its subject matter.Less

Conventional Objects, Concepts, & the Practice of Interpretation

John G. Gunnell

in Social Inquiry After Wittgenstein and Kuhn: Leaving Everything as It Is

This chapter deals with Wittgenstein's later discussions of interpretation and post-Investigations elaboration of the thought–language relationship. The posthumous remarks traditionally presented as ... More

This chapter deals with Wittgenstein's later discussions of interpretation and post-Investigations elaboration of the thought–language relationship. The posthumous remarks traditionally presented as part two of the Investigations (eventually entitled Philosophical Fragment), as well as Wittgenstein's later work on psychology, are a distinct development of the thematic gist of his earlier transitional work and the Investigations. Issues such as the nature of conventionality and the typology of concepts are also discussed within the context of Wittgenstein's work. The chapter closes with the implications of Wittgenstein's work for defending the autonomy of both social phenomena and the practice of social inquiry.Less

Virtual Ruin: Disinterested Agency in Hazlitt and Keats

in Anonymous Life: Romanticism and Dispossession

This chapter explores Hazlitt's belief that a concern for the imaginative capacities of ethical debate turns us to the virtuality of social relations, and that it is precisely in the dynamic between ... More

This chapter explores Hazlitt's belief that a concern for the imaginative capacities of ethical debate turns us to the virtuality of social relations, and that it is precisely in the dynamic between self-constitution and differentiation that an ethically charged social inquiry is formed. Indeed, it is by insisting on the tenuousness of our various conceptualizations of “self,” “subject,” “individuality,” and “reality” that Hazlitt comes to claim the most negating effects of the imagination as its most forceful facets. The chapter also discusses Keats's negative poetics of self-dissolution. It illustrates the connections between an ethics of disinterest or impersonal self-divestiture and an aesthetics of lyrical anonymity—what Keats would famously call “negative capability.”Less

United Methodism in Crisis: Prophetic Witness through the Board of Church and Society

in Public Pulpits: Methodists and Mainline Churches in the Moral Argument of Public Life

The United Methodist Building is the last nongovernmental edifice left facing directly onto the Capitol. Dedicated in 1924 by the Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals of the Methodist ... More

The United Methodist Building is the last nongovernmental edifice left facing directly onto the Capitol. Dedicated in 1924 by the Board of Temperance, Prohibition, and Public Morals of the Methodist Episcopal Church (North), the building today houses the Washington offices of the United Church of Christ, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the National Council of Churches, and a score of other religious agencies and advocacy groups, earning it the nickname “the God Box.” The building's prime tenant and landlord is the United Methodist General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), established there to represent and give voice to “the religious conscience of America.” The board is directed by the United Methodist Church to project plans and programs that challenge its members to work for righteousness through their own local churches, through ecumenical channels, and through society at large. The GBCS is charged to carry out a remarkably broad array of missions of moral and social inquiry, advocacy, education, planning, and programming that extend nationwide from Capitol Hill to local church pews and back again.Less

The Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland

K. J. Rankin

in The Oxford History of the Irish Book, Volume IV: The Irish Book in English, 1800-1891

This chapter examines the ways in which the Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland articulated the voice and expertise of a learned society dedicated to ‘the study of ... More

This chapter examines the ways in which the Journal of the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland articulated the voice and expertise of a learned society dedicated to ‘the study of Statistics and Economical Science’. Despite lacking the profile and resources of counterparts such as the Royal Dublin Society and the Royal Irish Academy, the Statistical and Social Inquiry Society of Ireland (known as the Dublin Statistical Society from 1847–62) and its journal exhibited a longevity and influence in the nineteenth century (and beyond) that is testimony to the dynamism of their founders and their ability to attract authoritative contributions for publication. The chapter pays particular attention to the Society’s published output from 1847 to 1890, its formative years, to show how the Journal was a product of the Irish experience of scholarly communication and of the learned society.Less

Interpreting Science: Kuhn as a Social Theorist

John G. Gunnell

in Social Inquiry After Wittgenstein and Kuhn: Leaving Everything as It Is

This chapter is concerned with the clarification of Thomas Kuhn's controversial account of science, focusing on how it relates to issues in social inquiry and how it exemplifies Wittgenstein's ... More

This chapter is concerned with the clarification of Thomas Kuhn's controversial account of science, focusing on how it relates to issues in social inquiry and how it exemplifies Wittgenstein's approach to philosophy. The connection between Wittgenstein's and Kuhn's works is not only seen by critics; for instance, Wes Sharrock and Rupert Read argue that Kuhn can be perceived in many respects as a “Wittgensteinian.” Read further emphasized the importance of situating Wittgenstein among the sciences. The parallels between Kuhn's argument and Wittgenstein's On Certainty are almost uncanny, but there is no proof that Kuhn was familiar with that text when he wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. It was the Berkeley environment that influenced the argument of Structure; Kuhn worked in the philosophy department at Berkeley with Stanley Cavell and Paul Feyerabend. Feyerabend's philosophy, like Kuhn's, is in agreement with Wittgenstein's and speaks to issues in social inquiry.Less

Evaluative Attitudes

Gerhard Preyer and Nicholas Malpas

in Dialogues with Davidson: Acting, Interpreting, Understanding

This chapter focuses on the “problem of value” that concerns the apparent conflict between such value-ladenness and the claim to objectivity and truth, and the disagreement regarding how this problem ... More

This chapter focuses on the “problem of value” that concerns the apparent conflict between such value-ladenness and the claim to objectivity and truth, and the disagreement regarding how this problem should be understood. Among philosophers and social scientists, the arguments for value-ladenness in the domain of social inquiry are well known and can be summarized as follows: social scientists are themselves social agents, and as such, have individual interests and commitments; social scientists are also members of social groups, and so share in, and are oriented by, the collective dispositions and attitudes of those groups; and the cognitive and evaluative attitudes whether of social scientists or of social agents in general are always interdependent. It is this last point, and the feature of attitudes that it highlights, that leads most directly to the conclusion that the scientific inquiry into the social is inherently value-laden.Less

Conclusion

Basia Spalek and Alia Imtoual

in Religion, spirituality and the social sciences: Challenging marginalisation

This chapter summarises the themes of the book, which focus on religion and spirituality in popular culture and policy arenas as well as within the academy. The first section examines the notion of ... More

This chapter summarises the themes of the book, which focus on religion and spirituality in popular culture and policy arenas as well as within the academy. The first section examines the notion of secularism in relation to contemporary Western society. The second part considers the emergence of social scientific disciplines within the context of modernity and Enlightenment philosophy, exploring how the values underlying social scientific inquiry might serve to marginalise religion and spirituality. The last part is comprised of reflections on social science research methodologies when researching religion and spirituality. In addition to reviewing the dominant themes of the book, the chapter also concludes that the volume is able to explore the current theoretical underpinnings of various social science disciplines and link these to the development of research approaches and the resultant ways in which religion and spirituality have been marginalised from these approaches. It has provided a space to explore the complexities for researchers who are negotiating with the voices of faith communities and how social science research frameworks can respectfully and critically work with these communities, specifically on issues of identity, difference, and representation.Less

Presentation and Representation in Social Inquiry

John G. Gunnell

in Conventional Realism and Political Inquiry: Channeling Wittgenstein

This chapter defends a distinction between the concepts of presentation and representation, which is important both to an argument for conventional realism and for understanding the difference ... More

This chapter defends a distinction between the concepts of presentation and representation, which is important both to an argument for conventional realism and for understanding the difference between natural and social inquiry. While social inquiry is basically a representational and interpretive activity, natural science is presentational, even though each shares a form of the other. When speaking of representation in this chapter, it should not be confused with as representational philosophy. The difference between representation and presentation is explored through an interpretation of Wittgenstein’s Tractatus and by an analysis of the persistence of this distinction in his later work.Less

Thomas Kuhn & the Shadow of Wittgenstein

John G. Gunnell

in Social Inquiry After Wittgenstein and Kuhn: Leaving Everything as It Is

This chapter demonstrates how the shadow of Wittgenstein looms over issues of social inquiry. This shadow, however, is not an accurate manifestation of his argument, and it confuses the domain on ... More

This chapter demonstrates how the shadow of Wittgenstein looms over issues of social inquiry. This shadow, however, is not an accurate manifestation of his argument, and it confuses the domain on which it has been cast. Filmmaker Errol Morris' criticism of Thomas Kuhn as an example of how Wittgenstein's work has threatened the concept of truth is drawn from misinterpretations on their work by some philosophers. While Morris claims that Kuhn jeopardized the objectivity of science and the search for truth, others have argued that the practical implication of Kuhn's work was to promote philosophical satisfaction and political conformity. These arguments are nonetheless historically inaccurate, and basically misunderstand the works of both Wittgenstein and Kuhn.Less

Theories of care as a challenge to Weberian paradigms in social science

Joan C. Tronto

in Care Ethics and Political Theory

This chapter makes a large claim for theories of care: they now need to show how they offer a different analysis of social reality from more mainstream approaches in social science. The Weberian ... More

This chapter makes a large claim for theories of care: they now need to show how they offer a different analysis of social reality from more mainstream approaches in social science. The Weberian model of social science, which starts from the intentional action of actors and discovers the unintended consequences of their actions, is a model of social science that limits the scope of responsibilities. Using Ulrich Beck’s notion of “risk society” as exemplary of this approach to social science, this chapter proposes an alternative framing of social science. After a feminist critique of Beck, it considers how an ethic of care, with its attention to responsibility, brings different concerns to the fore. The chapter suggests that this alternative way of conceiving of social science better encompasses the kinds of concerns that social scientists now need to address.Less

Between Stress Beach and Fantasy Island

Johan A. Lindquist

in The Anxieties of Mobility: Migration and Tourism in the Indonesian Borderlands

This chapter offers not so much closure as a way forward. Taking as its starting point an ambiguous structure being built on Batam's Stress Beach in 2003—a structure suggesting both boom and bust—it ... More

This chapter offers not so much closure as a way forward. Taking as its starting point an ambiguous structure being built on Batam's Stress Beach in 2003—a structure suggesting both boom and bust—it highlights the form of temporality—the belum, or “not yet”—and the related open-ended circuits of mobility that have formed the trajectory for description throughout this book. In so doing, the book reaffirms the critical importance of ethnography as a method that reduces the gap between description and theory in studies of globalization and social life, more generally, thus positioning anthropology as a discipline at the center of social inquiry.Less

Conclusion

M.L.R. Smith and David Martin Jones

in The Political Impossibility of Modern Counterinsurgency: Strategic Problems, Puzzles, and Paradoxes

This concluding chapter points to the underlying problem surrounding the ambiguous nature of the concept of insurgency. This lack of accuracy has corresponding implications for the comprehension of ... More

This concluding chapter points to the underlying problem surrounding the ambiguous nature of the concept of insurgency. This lack of accuracy has corresponding implications for the comprehension of counterinsurgency (COIN), which renders COIN a pliable theory. The contemporary advocacy of COIN wagers its credibility on identifying a timeless and almost scientifically predictable pattern to certain tactical practices in war. However, this emphasis on examining the technical grammar of conduct comes at the expense of understanding the contingent political factors that makes all war unpredictable. Ultimately, the chapter concludes that the COIN narrative's attempt to theorize the complexity of war demonstrates a fallacy within much Western social inquiry. The counterinsurgency paradigm in fact contains a capacity for profound self-delusion and ideologically induced policy mistakes.Less