A Transatlantic History of the Social Sciences

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. From the beginning of the twentieth century, scientific and social scientific research has been characterised by intellectual exchange between Europe and the US. The establishment of the Third Reich ensured that, from the German speaking world, at least, this became a one-way traffic. In this book Christian Fleck explores the invention of empirical social research, which by 1950 had become the binding norm of international scholarship, and he analyses the contribution of German refugee social scientists to its establishment. The major names are here, from Adorno and Horkheimer to Hirshman and Lazarsfeld, but at the heart of the book is a unique collective biography based on original data from more than 800 German-speaking social scientists. Published in German in 2008 to great acclaim, Fleck's important study of the transatlantic enrichment of the social sciences is now available in a revised English-language edition

A Transatlantic History of the Social Sciences

This book is available as open access through the Bloomsbury Open Access programme and is available on www.bloomsburycollections.com. From the beginning of the twentieth century, scientific and social scientific research has been characterised by intellectual exchange between Europe and the US. The establishment of the Third Reich ensured that, from the German speaking world, at least, this became a one-way traffic. In this book Christian Fleck explores the invention of empirical social research, which by 1950 had become the binding norm of international scholarship, and he analyses the contribution of German refugee social scientists to its establishment. The major names are here, from Adorno and Horkheimer to Hirshman and Lazarsfeld, but at the heart of the book is a unique collective biography based on original data from more than 800 German-speaking social scientists. Published in German in 2008 to great acclaim, Fleck's important study of the transatlantic enrichment of the social sciences is now available in a revised English-language edition

Understanding the Evolution of Theoretical Constructs in Organization Studies: Examining Cooperation and Purpose

Thesis advisor: Mary Ann GlynnI examine the process of evolution for theoretical constructs in the field of organizational scholarship, leveraging the sociology of knowledge literature and empirical studies of construct development to focus my research. Prior studies suggest several key factors operating in the process--actor-oriented components, including the characteristics and strategies of scholarly actors, and situationally-oriented components of historical context and word meanings. No study, however, has assessed these factors in interaction over time. I address this gap through a historical study based primarily on archival data regarding construct usage in journal articles and scholarly books. Specifically, I explore the evolution of "cooperation" and "purpose" in organizational scholarship from 1938 through 2005. My findings contribute to elaboration of the theory of construct evolution proposed by Hirsch & Levin (1999), as I observe that a construct developing largely within a single disciplinary paradigm is marked by narrowing rather than expansion of meaning in the course of increased operationalization. Further, I find that an interdisciplinary context of evolution multiplies not just meanings but also the language used for a construct. I also document how antecedent conditions of meaning for the words "cooperation" and "purpose," as well as elements of historical context, affect the evolution process. In addition, my study extends the observations of Barley & Kunda (1992) regarding a cyclical dichotomy between rational and normative paradigms in managerial discourse, as I observe this pattern contributing to the fragmentation of language and meanings in the constructs studied.Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011.Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management.Discipline: Organization Studies

Patterns of Science: Developing Knowledge for a World Community at Unesco

In the aftermath of World War II, many internationalists diagnosed the fundamental cause of international conflict as humanity’s failure to realize the ideals of a world community grounded in global political institutions and common values. To prevent an apocalyptic third world war, internationalists affiliated with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) identified two ways science could engineer a peaceful and prosperous world community: “technologically, by changing the material conditions of life, work and production; and intellectually, by changing the way in which men think.” Grounded in archival research in four countries, “Patterns of Science” explores both strategies through studies of Unesco’s environmental and social sciences programs. Environmental scientists emphasized the need to balance nature’s books by adapting the pattern of natural resources exploitation to the requirements of global population growth. They conceived of scientifically guided development as a moral equivalent of war that could unite an international army for the conquest of nature. Social scientists stressed the importance of reforming parochial cultural patterns to construct “the defences of peace in the minds of men.” By facilitating intercultural understanding, social scientists would help nations realize the ideal of “unity in diversity.” The goal of both strategies was to produce objective global knowledge that would make the world scale real—“in the minds of men” as well as for politicians and planners. “Patterns of Science” reveals how internationalist scientists attempted to navigate the politics of the cold war, decolonization, and bureaucratic rivalries through case studies that demonstrate the interaction of international, national, and local scales. These cases range from the Los Angeles School District’s implementation of a “Unesco program” during the height of McCarthyism to the establishment of a university chair of race relations in Southern Rhodesia, and from an arid lands research program that pitted “men against the desert” to the production of a Soil Map of the World. Although often mired in controversy or dismissed as naïve, Unesco’s work produced an international community of experts and global social and environmental knowledge that proved crucial to the emerging imperative for sustainable development in the early 1970s

The Education of Economists: Social Norms and the Academy in the Canadian Context

This dissertation centres upon the learning processes and social norms associated with two distinct strands of economic thinking – one loosely heterodox and the other mainstream, or “neo-classical.” My intention is to examine the learning processes and consequent beliefs of a range of Canadian economists, especially macroeconomists. To achieve this goal, I have undertaken a number of comparative case studies within the Canadian context. These have generated data from a survey of 100 academic economists as well as a series of in-depth interviews with 58 Canadian economists across the political and methodological spectra. My results have drawn from the contributions of a total of 158 respondents. This thesis aims to examine economics education in the Canadian context, charting the rise of neoclassical economics from the 1970s onwards while examining the educational processes, choice of language, social norms, and views of human nature to be found among a variety of Canadian economists with differing political orientations. This may help to identify the role economics education has played in shaping the economic landscape in Canada, and how Canadian economists’ learning processes have emphasised or minimised certain assumptions about public policy and human nature that differ from what is taught – implicitly or explicitly – elsewhere. In a field that is, among the social sciences, by far the most resistant to knowledge from other disciplines, Canadian academic economists are by all appearances global outliers. My research suggests that they are significantly more open to knowledge from other disciplines than groups of economists elsewhere; relative to American academic economists, they are almost twice as likely to believe that interdisciplinary knowledge is better than knowledge generated from a single field, and the older cohorts surpass even U.S. sociologists in this regard. My research also suggests that social norms may have a more profound effect on economists’ beliefs than their formal education in economics, and that historical and institutional factors – especially during economists’ formative years – may have a life-long impact on Canadian economists’ political beliefs. There also appear to be educational, geographical, and cohort-related effects on economists’ beliefs that, together with the effects of Canadian social norms, combine to form an image of a discipline that is less polarised, more pro-interdisciplinarity, and substantially more accepting of a role for government in economic policy than that of their economist brethren in the U.S.The Cambridge Trust, the British Association of Canadian Studies, the Smuts Fund, and the Cambridge Philosophical Society all provided funding for this doctorate

Valences of Interdisciplinarity: Theory, Practice, Pedagogy

The modern university can trace its roots to Kant's call for enlightened self-determination, with education aiming to produce an informed and responsible body of citizens. As the university evolved, specialized areas of investigation emerged, enabling ever more precise research and increasingly nuanced arguments. In recent decades, however, challenges to the hegemony of disciplines have arisen, partly in response to a perceived need for the university to focus greater energy on its public vocation—teaching and the dissemination of knowledge. Valences of Interdisciplinarity presents essays by an international array of scholars committed to enhancing our understanding of the theoretical underpinnings and the practical realities of interdisciplinary teaching and research. What is, and what should be, motivating our reflections on (and practice of) approaches that transcend the conventional boundaries of discipline? And in adopting such transdisciplinary approaches, how do we safeguard critical methods and academic rigour? Reflecting on the obstacles they have encountered both as thinkers and as educators, the authors map out innovative new directions for the interdisciplinary project. Together, the essays promise to set the standards of the debate about interdisciplinarity for years to come

The Phenomenology of Economics: Life-World, Formalism, and the Invisible Hand

I use the phenomenological notion of the life-world for a thorough critique of economic science on three different levels. First, for a description of the discursive situation of current economists regarding their public, professional and pedagogical ethos. Second, for a social history of the scientification of economics from the 17th century until today. Third, for a biography of a mathematical economist, Gerard Debreu, who never perceived himself as an economist but nevertheless received the Nobel Prize for Economics. I argue that economic science is constituted by the oblivion of the life-world, specifically the oblivion of the motives that give rise to economics. Claiming scientific authority in economics thus produces an experiential conflict for the intellectual life of economists