The Social Sciences at a Turning Point?


Book Description

In this proceedings, authoritative experts and policy makers examine the current state and status of the social sciences and present their views on what needs to be done.




The Social Sciences at a Turning Point?


Book Description

The social sciences in OECD countries -- The prospects of European social science -- Challenges and opportunities for the social and behavioural sciences -- Rethinking the social sciences? A point of view -- Social sciences in the Dutch Foresight Exercise -- Social science organisation and policy issues in Germany -- Social science research and policy in Japan -- Social Sciences in a transition economy : the case of Poland.







The Turning Point


Book Description

A compelling vision of a new reality, a reconciliation of science and the human spirit for a future that will work The dynamics underlying the major problems of our time—cancer, crime, pollution, nuclear power, inflation, the energy shortage—are all the same. We have reached a time of dramatic and potentially dangerous change, a turning point for the planet as a whole. We need a new vision of reality, one that allows the forces transforming our world to flow together as a positive movement for social change. Now distinguished scientist Fritjof Capra gives us that vision, a holistic paradigm of science and spirit. “This splendid and thoughtful book is an essential guide for anyone inquiring about the place of science and metascience in our contemporary culture. Those who enjoyed Fritjof Capra’s Tao of Physics should not expect a sequel; this is a much more ambitious book that attempts and succeeds in presenting a whole worldview from the viewpoint of a committed and experienced physicist who also writes from within the North American culture…. It is unusually detailed and thorough in its inclusion of the conventional and the alternative approaches to topics ranging from ecology through medicine and psychology to economics. It is at once scholarly and easy to read.”—Jim Lovelock, New Scientist







Turning Points


Book Description

Turning Points: Challenges for Western Democracies in the 21st Century centers around the strikingly under-researched concept of turning points and its application in political science, including various theories, fields, and sub-disciplines. The chapters provide theoretical discussion and conceptual clarity by distinguishing a set of turning points at different analytical levels. Based on a wide range of case studies, the authors illustrate where, when and how different types of turning points occur (or not) against the backdrop of current challenges in and for Western democracies. The conceptual and empirical variety of the volume allows scholars and practitioners in policymaking to develop and apply their own frameworks when dealing with turning point dynamics.




Mankind at the Turning Point


Book Description




Time Series Analysis in the Social Sciences


Book Description

"This book focuses on fundamental elements of time-series analysis that social scientists need to understand to employ time-series analysis for their research and practice. Avoiding extraordinary mathematical materials, this book explains univariate time-series analysis step-by-step, from the preliminary visual analysis through the modeling of seasonality, trends, and residuals to the prediction and the evaluation of estimated models. Then, this book explains smoothing, multiple time-series analysis, and interrupted time-series analysis. At the end of each step, this book coherently provides an analysis of the monthly violent-crime rates as an example."--Provided by publisher.




Biography and Turning Points in Europe and America


Book Description

This sociological collection advances the argument that the concept of a "turning point" expands our understanding of life experiences from a descriptive to a deeper and more abstract level of analysis. It addresses the conceptual issue of what distinguishes turning points from life transitions in general and raises crucial questions about the application of turning points as a biographical research method. Biography and turning points in Europe and America is all the more distinctive and significant due to its broad empirical database. The anthology includes authors from ten different countries, providing a number of contexts for thinking about how turning points relate to constructions of meaning shaped by globalization and by cultural and structural meanings unique to each country. The book will be useful across a wide range of social sciences and particularly valuable for researchers needing a stronger theoretical base for biographical work.




New Thinking in Complexity for the Social Sciences and Humanities


Book Description

The underlying idea and motive for the book is that the notion of complexity may humanize the social sciences, may conceive the complex human being as more human, and turn reality as assumed in our doing social science into a more complex, that is a richer reality for all. The main focus of this book is on new thinking in complexity, with complexity to be taken as derived from the Latin word complexus: ‘that which is interwoven.’ The trans-disciplinary approach advocated here will be trans-disciplinary in two ways: firstly, by going beyond the separate disciplines within the fields of both natural sciences and social sciences, and, secondly, by going beyond the separate cultures of the natural sciences and of the social sciences and humanities.