Social science

Outgoing Erasmus University Rotterdam president discusses the underappreciated value of the social sciences, managing student protests and the differences between Dutch and German higher education

As data becomes ever more central to policy and commerce, its creation demands closer scrutiny, say Cristina Alaimo and Jannis Kallinikos

My government-commissioned review is seeking examples of barriers to research on sex and gender faced by UK-based individuals, says Alice Sullivan

Required remedies include harsher punishments, more flexible research design stipulations and stronger social sanctions, says Akhil Bhardwaj

Report authors warn focus on sciences risks making UK research sector ‘lopsided’

The shadow chancellor’s book on female economists is emblematic of UK sociology’s struggle for disciplinary status, says Robert Dingwall

As Max Weber taught, scholars must respect the distinction between facts and values, says Martyn Hammersley

Some politicians are using the supposed ideological character of research to justify imposing greater control over it, says Martyn Hammersley

Scientists and technologists must participate in a genuinely collective project to regulate technological development, says Nicholas Dirks

Disparities of wealth are becoming ever more extreme, yet researchers continue to focus their attention on the poor, laments Michael Marinetto

The technology threatens to impoverish research and destroy humans’ ability to understand the social world, says Dirk Lindebaum

Projects that pose no risk to participants are being distorted or prevented by regulations designed for medical interventions, says Martyn Hammersley

We need to find mechanisms to plug in relevant humanities and social sciences from the very beginning of projects, says Christina Boswell

If those on both the Left and Right fail to examine basic assumptions, knowledge advancement is impaired, says Martyn Hammersley 

Failure to expel crackpot social scientists from Russia’s academy has allowed dangerous dogma to dominate public discourse, says Andreas Umland

The latest A-level data show concerning long-term trends in the popularity of humanities subjects, says Julia Black

If authors are no longer required to justify their fundamental assumptions, where does that leave referees, asks Martyn Hammersley

Analysis reveals that UK scholars tend to move to jobs that bring them into closer conformity with disciplinary standards, says Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra

Head of Cardiff University’s new social sciences centre says virtual working has not dented the case for new ‘superlab’

Losses perceived for holistic views as communications modes show humanists embracing data-heavy styles of the hard sciences

Coyness, contention and competing agendas all hamper historians and sociologists of sex. Matthew Reisz speaks to those who choose, nevertheless, to probe this most sensitive and intimate of subjects

Studying institutional success stories is socially useful and has nothing to do with selling out, say Matthew Flinders and Paul ’t Hart

ESRC extends PhD support to last three-and-a-half years but rejects review’s four-year recommendation

The LSE director on the institution’s green strategy, the importance of social scientists working with industry and the advantages of being ‘different’

Card, Angrist and Imbens of Berkeley, MIT and Stanford take honour for social investigations

There is much to learn from ancient farming techniques, and archaeology can help mental health too, says organiser of Campaign to Save British Archaeology

The narrative that the humanities are haemorrhaging students, funding and political favour is deeply felt around the world. But the evidence of the disciplines’ decline is considerably more nuanced, finds Simon Baker

Right-wing politicians’ caricaturing of a mature research approach is a social dominance power play, says Steve Raven

THE forum hears Manchester v-c spotlight social sciences and humanities, plus universities’ local roles, in vision for post-pandemic future

Funding is declining but business school research is as vital as science to post-pandemic economic recovery, says Zahir Irani

Aston and London South Bank are latest institutions to shutter humanities and social sciences degrees

Without audit studies, we would have an impoverished understanding of discrimination, say S. Michael Gaddis, Charles Crabtree and nine others

Events at the University of Leicester suggest an always tense relationship may be turning toxic, says Ursula Huws

Autocracy starts with the violent repression of students and academics, say Matteo Fumagalli, Achim Kemmerling, Youngmi Kim and Luicy Pedroza

Worries about Islamo-leftism in France and free speech in England reflect disciplines’ straddling of science and activism, says Alexis Artaud de La Ferrière

This isn’t the 18th century. Email and phones exist. So why is so much academic discussion still left to journals, asks Julian Baggini

Academics must emphasise that thinking critically does not mean dismissing everything as biased, say Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren

As Netflix’s film on Sutton Hoo illustrates, collaboration between academic and commercial research enriches understanding of history, says Susan Greaney

The discipline’s existence reflects an enduring Western belief in the inferiority of knowledge production specific to different cultures, says David Simon

Academics say Chinese higher education has long been hobbled by the lack of an ‘accurate system of academic evaluation’

UK minister Kemi Badenoch’s disavowal of the theory plays into a misleading right-wing narrative, says Hannah Robbins

Publications must always permit debate on the quality and relevance of research – plus the efficacy and costs of derived policy, says Robert Dingwall

Study calls for race issues to be embedded into curricula, not taught as an ‘add-on’

India’s National Education Policy aims to establish a seamless connectivity between humanities and science, says Rup Narayan Das

‘Every young student of science has had a fantasy about winning a Nobel prize,’ says one laureate – and ever more rival prizes are being established. But with a cast of thousands currently pursuing the holy grail of a vaccine for Covid-19, might awards committees finally jettison their problematic focus on lone genius, asks Jack Grove

Social scientists should be judged on their impact, while journals should make room for under-represented voices, say academics

Critics underestimated the human imagination’s capacity to render concepts flexible, says Frank Furedi

Latin American university leaders tell THE summit that countries will need skills of non-science graduates as they recover from coronavirus

Failure to improve predictions compounds concerns over effectiveness, accuracy and racial bias

Whether it’s to be ‘business as usual’ or not, social scientists have much to offer in discussion about how to move on after ravages of Covid-19

Yes, excess haste can lead to mistakes, but the same is true of natural science, says Sandro Galea

Global recession may make public and policymakers think more about those ‘at the bottom of society’, says social policy academic

Some traditional marketing-focused courses replaced by programmes emphasising environmental studies and social responsibility

University of Texas at Austin scholar argues that the poor state of quantitative psychology makes replication impossible

Prince Andrew’s fall from grace a full decade after Jeffrey Epstein’s conviction underlines academia’s failure to probe modern power, says Jason Lee

Oxford professor challenges his fellow geographers to reflect on their often myopic perspectives

Fees reform has not quelled popular anger over exploitation, but academics can play a key role in constitutional reform, says Robert Funk

£9,000 fees permitted per-student funding to rise even at the height of austerity, argues former minister David Willetts

Steph Grohmann’s ‘revenge eviction’ gave her vivid, first-hand experience of the trials and consolations of occupying unused buildings, finds Matthew Reisz

Ever since it emerged from English departments in the 1970s, media studies has been routinely dismissed as the archetypal ‘Mickey Mouse’ degree. But in an era of fake news and media hegemony, has this multifaceted subject finally found its place in the zeitgeist?