1. Benefits that can be gained from the social sciences
It seems extremely urgent to extend the co-operation between social-scientists and policy-makers to improve the role of evidence-based science in decision-making. Social science must be at least as active as natural sciences have been in studying climate change and environmental degradation in the last decades. Fortunately, the development of the interface between the two areas has acquired high priority both at national and supra-national levels.
The most important statement about the benefits that policy-makers can gain from the social sciences is that all process, problem, method, and rule related questions (for example: What is the historically, ethically and culturally accepted or tolerated level of “coercion”? What are the practically most effective constellations of regulatory measures and (historically, ethically and culturally determined) compliance behaviours?), discussed in the previous chapters, can be approached and answered with the tools of the social sciences. The level of accuracy and the depth of the analysis depend mainly on the commitment of the stakeholders and of course on the available research budget. The results of the social scientists’ activities reduce uncertainties, facilitate risk-based decisions and improve effectiveness. Even a low level of investment in socio-economic research can provide essential information and can ease the policy-makers daily work. This is a great advantage compared to natural sciences.
Numerous conclusions can be drawn from the overview of environmental policy literature about the significance of the social sciences. The list below shows the benefits that can be gained, although it is far from being comprehensive. It ...
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...social science cannot do. It can only answer questions at the same level of relevancy that they are asked. Typically, very general questions are asked by the regulators, for example “which instrument should I use?" or “which method should I use?”. These questions can be precisely answered if the question is: “which instrument should I use for the X problem, in the Y region, and in the Z sector?” Additionally, social sciences cannot provide appropriate results if information is not available.
Although social research generates new information, some field data provided by the regulatory organisations are indispensable for the subsequent research and advising. It is an extremely important aspect, because regulatory organisations sometimes hide their field data (for example about the environmental performance of the regulated area) to put out of sight their failures.
...nerations” if things go unregulated. Fortunately science provides policy makers with the information needed to make informed regulations to benefit the future. It seems that environmentalism is becoming the stewardship of the Earth.
This essay will look at defining what social policy is and give a brief overview of the selected policy. Examining the need for the policy, statistical evidence supporting this. Then the pressure groups lobbying and who may have been influential in policy development.
Bodansky, Daniel. "The Who, What, and Wherefore of Geoengineering Governance." Climate Change 121.3 (2013): 539-551. Print. DOI.ORG/10.2139/SSRN.2168850
For social sciences majors, reading this book can provide a look at exactly what biases there are in the field we are hoping to enter, and what mistakes are commonly made. It provides a long list of examples of ways in which numbers can be messed up, and is a good warning to those of us wanting to be social scientists.
Gaskel, G. (2014) Thinking like a social scientist: Why methodology matters LSE100 Lecture Capture retrieved 26th March 2014 [http://moodle.lse.ac.uk]
Social psychology centres on a subject or person who has universal characteristics which can be studied independently of the social context.
Throughout this assignment a variety of terminology will be used, first it is appropriate to define what the term ‘Social Policy’ means. Social policy can be defined in different ways and ‘there is no established or agreed definition of social policy’ (Baldock et, al., 1999:21). From reading different books on social policy, the author’s understanding of social policy is it provides guidelines to deal with social problems . Social problems are matters which direct...
In my opinion I ranked the seven social sciences according to what I believed it was important and has the most influence on the people in a modern society. My first ranked for the seven social sciences is Psychology then Sociology, Political science, History, Economics, Anthropology and last Geography.
For these reasons, global warming stands as one of the most daunting policy issues facing our world today. This is compounded by the debate over the very existence of climate change. While countless sources of empirical evidence testify to the very real presence of climate change the world over, considerable denial of the phenomenon still exists. The argument has been made that evidence about climate change is a gross overstatement, or in some cases, a complete fabrication. Despite the evidence to the contrary, many interest groups with considerable political clout have successfully perpetuated the argument that documented changes in the environment are a product of natural cyclical changes in climate, and are not associated with human activities. However, even the acceptance of this particular brand of reality is no grounds for the disregard of environmental consciousness. Even if one accepts the premise that recent climate change is not resultant of human activity, the rationale behind environmental conservation remains ...
Political Science has many definitions. Some would say it is simply a game of rhetoric but at its hearth it can be defined as a discipline that studies public polices, political behaviors, governments and political behavior. As a social science, the process used to acquire information includes a combination of several approaches. Political Science uses case studies, historical, constitutional, and institutional contexts, comparative case studies and also quantitative/qualitative methods.
Wilcock, D. A. (2013). From blank spcaes to flows of life: transforming community engagment in environmental decision-making and its implcations for localsim. Policy Studies 34:4, 455-473.
Often, scientists are tasked with the role of providing evidence to support theories or to predict future outcomes based on scientific research. This methods or research are usually accepted in natural sciences like chemistry and physics. This is because unlike social science, they usually use formulas, well laid out structures and methods (Guttin, 2012). However, when it comes to social science, researchers usually work using theories by formulating hypothesis, and researching to prove or disapprove the theories. When doing this, social science researchers usually become advocates in certain circumstances. This paper highlights some of the pros and cons of scientists becoming advocates, and gives examples of when social scientists become advocates and situations where they observe objectivity.
According to Jacquet (2014:1) social sciences has long been interested in the social and economic created by large industrial, land-use and environmental changes. In the early 1970’s, formalised set of practices and processes named Social Impact Assessment (SIA) emerged to document and/or predict socio-economic impacts from such large-scale projects which was developed in the United States through the 1969 National Environment Policy Act, which led to the expansion of the practice of Social Impact Assessment (SIA) (Jacquet, 2014:1). Vanclay (cited in Byker, 2009:12) defines Social Impact Assessment as an assessment in an effort to measure or estimate, the social consequences that are most likely to follow from explicit
Sociology is undoubtedly a logical science; it has the characteristics that other sciences have, its own theories that can be proved, as well as having systematic theories and laws. John Maynard Keynes refuted the many statements made by Auguste Comte and Friedrich Engels, simply he described social sciences as “illogical” and “dull.” Thus, without providing any sufficient evidence, he had not proven that, in fact, sociology is not scientific. Auguste Comte regularly compared sociology to other familiar forms of science, like biology, physics, and chemistry. In doing so, he made the assumption that others believed sociology to be scientific. Comte, unintentionally, provided adequate evidence as to why sociology is scientific, while at the same time simply describing sociology as a whole. Much like Comte, Friedrich Engels also found social sciences to be scientific, Engels was able to apply Comte’s beliefs and the basis of sociology to practical situations and groups of people. His strong belief in the science of sociology helped him form the basic idea that knowledge is what makes a person free; thus, ignorance is what restricts people. John Maynard Keynes is considered the challenger of Friedrich Engels, because he often disputed Engels’ work, especially his work on social sciences. Keynes found socialism to be a utopianism ideal, which caused people to be easily influenced without really being aware of all the facts. He didn’t believe that the...
I feel that challenges to success in the social science are not similar to the challenges of the natural sciences. The main purpose for my statement is natural sciences base theories on concrete structural forms. Changes are much slower and subjects or matters are constant. Another factor is natural science research is primarily performed in a lab where conditions are more controllable. The similarities between natural science and social science are which they are both observed specific phenomena, only observation for social scientist can be divided as observation, asking question, studying written document. But natural scientist is not able to use those ways because metals, chemicals and other materialistic matters can not be studied like people.