L'évaluation de l'information : Confiance et défiance


Book Description

Lors de la réception d’une information, nous ne restons jamais passifs : selon son origine et ses contenus, à partir de nos croyances et convictions personnelles, spontanément ou après réflexion, nous lui accordons une certaine confiance. Excessive, celle-ci témoigne d’une certaine naïveté, tandis qu’une défiance absolue confine à la paranoïa ; ces deux attitudes sont symétriquement préjudiciables à la bonne perception de cette information comme à son usage. Hors de ces deux situations extrêmes, chacun adopte généralement une position intermédiaire face à une information reçue, selon sa provenance et sa crédibilité. Encore faut-il comprendre et justifier comment ces jugements sont conçus, dans quel contexte et à quelle fin. À partir d’approches graduelles offertes par la philosophie, le renseignement militaire, l’algorithmie puis l’informatique, cet ouvrage présente les concepts de l’information et de la confiance qui lui est faite, les méthodes que les armées, premières conscientes du besoin, ont adoptées ou le devraient, les outils pour y aider, et les perspectives qu’ils ouvrent. Au-delà du contexte militaire, le livre dessine un schéma global de l’évaluation de l’information utilisable dans bien d’autres domaines tels que l’intelligence économique, et plus largement la veille informationnelle gouvernementale et d’entreprises.




The Quantitative Analysis of Social Representations


Book Description

Designed for undergraduate and postgraduate courses in sociology and social psychology, this textbook looks at the quantitative methodology of social representations research, using empirical and graphical illustrations and data tables.




African Social Studies


Book Description

African Social Studies: A Radical Reader, is an essential and wide-ranging collection of essays by some of the world's finest social scientists, known and lesser-known. This impressive collection covers issues such as the legacy of colonialism, imperialism, problems in the field of African Studies, national liberation movements, and more. No student of Africa should be without this volume.




Dictionary of the Social Sciences


Book Description

Featuring over 1,800 concise definitions of key terms, the Dictionary of the Social Sciences is the most comprehensive, authoritative single-volume work of its kind. With coverage on the vocabularies of anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, human geography, cultural studies, and Marxism, the Dictionary is an integrated, easy-to-use, A-to-Z reference tool. Designed for students and non-specialists, it examines classic and contemporary scholarship including basic terms, concepts, theories, schools of thought, methodologies, issues, and controversies. As a true dictionary, it also contains concise, jargon-free definitions that explain the rich, sometimes complex language of these increasingly visible fields.




Methodology and Epistemology of Multilevel Analysis


Book Description

The purpose of the multilevel approach is to understand individual behaviors taking into account the social context in which they occur. This book deals with concepts and methods underlying this approach. This book is of interest to a broad audience of social scientists, statisticians and philosophers concerned with new issues raised by the multilevel approach, and more generally with explanation in the social sciences.







The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences


Book Description

The Palgrave Handbook of the History of Human Sciences offers a uniquely comprehensive and global overview of the evolution of ideas, concepts and policies within the human sciences. Drawn from histories of the social and psychological sciences, anthropology, the history and philosophy of science, and the history of ideas, this collection analyses the health and welfare of populations, evidence of the changing nature of our local communities, cities, societies or global movements, and studies the way our humanness or ‘human nature’ undergoes shifts because of broader technological shifts or patterns of living. This Handbook serves as an authoritative reference to a vast source of representative scholarly work in interdisciplinary fields, a means of understanding patterns of social change and the conduct of institutions, as well as the histories of these ‘ways of knowing’ probe the contexts, circumstances and conditions which underpin continuity and change in the way we count, analyse and understand ourselves in our different social worlds. It reflects a critical scholarly interest in both traditional and emerging concerns on the relations between the biological and social sciences, and between these and changes and continuities in societies and conducts, as 21st century research moves into new intellectual and geographic territories, more diverse fields and global problematics. ​




The Social Sciences in the Looking Glass


Book Description

In recent years, social scientists have turned their critical lens on the historical roots and contours of their disciplines, including their politics and practices, epistemologies and methods, institutionalization and professionalization, national development and colonial expansion, globalization and local contestations, and public presence and role in society. The Social Sciences in the Looking Glass offers current social scientific perspectives on this reflexive moment. Examining sociology, anthropology, philosophy, political science, legal theory, and religious studies, the volume’s contributors outline the present transformations of the social sciences, explore their connections with critical humanities, analyze the challenges of alternate paradigms, and interrogate recent endeavors to move beyond the human. Throughout, the authors, who belong to half a dozen disciplines, trace how the social sciences are thoroughly entangled in the social facts they analyze and are key to helping us understand the conditions of our world. Contributors. Chitralekha, Jean-Louis Fabiani, Didier Fassin, Johan Heilbron, Miriam Kingsberg Kadia, Kristoffer Kropp, Nicolas Langlitz, John Lardas Modern, Álvaro Morcillo Laiz, Amín Pérez, Carel Smith, George Steinmetz, Peter D. Thomas, Bregje van Eekelen, Agata Zysiak




Powermatics


Book Description

Originally published in 1987. This critical work is an exploration of new communications technology in its social context, as a social discourse determined by other forms of inter-play. The author refers to Weber, Innis, Habermas and Foucault to develop her argument.




Epistemology, Fieldwork, and Anthropology


Book Description

Epistemology, Fieldwork, and Anthropology provides a systematic examination of the empirical foundations of interpretations and grounded theories in anthropology. Olivier de Sardan explores the nature of the links between observed reality and the data produced during fieldwork, and between the data gathered and final interpretative statements. Olivier de Sardan's research asks how anthropologists develop a 'policy of fieldwork', what the advantages and limits of observation are, and if the dangers of over-interpretation and scientific ideologies be minimized. Exploring the space between epistemology and methodology, the book critically juxtaposes Anglo and Francophone writings about fieldwork, plausible interpretations, emicity, reflexivity, comparison, and scientific rigor.