Social science perspectives on climate change and development

University of Copenhagen

Xaquín S. Pérez-Sindín López

Tag: knowledge

  • The Black Swan: Understanding the Power of the Unexpected

    We like to believe the world is predictable. We build plans, forecasts, strategies, and expectations based on what we already know. We look at the past and assume it can help us understand the future. Most of the time, this works well enough. But every so often, something happens that breaks our assumptions completely. This…

  • Hegel`s theory of recognition: in order to be a full subject, each needs to be recognized by the other

    In Hegel you have essentially two actors encountering one another and each is a subject, but in order to be a full subject, each needs to be recognized by the other. Each affirms the other as a subject in its own right that is simultaneously equal and different from me. If both people can affirm…

  • Historicism = our thoughts are “socially located”

    Historicism especially as expressed in the work of Wilhelm Dilthey, immediately preceded the sociology of knowledge. The dominant theme here was an overwhelming sense of the relativity of all perspectives on human events, that is, of the inevitable historicity of human thought. The historicist insistence that no historical situation could be understood except in its…

  • “Ideology” and “false consciousness”

    The sociology of knowledge in­herited from Marx not only the sharpest formulation of its central problem (that is “man´s consciousness is determined by his social being”) but also some of its key concepts, among which should be mentioned particularly the concepts of ‘ideology’ (ideas serving as weapons for social interests) and ‘false consciousness’ (thought that…

  • Experimental governance and pre-scientific knowledge

    In a previous post it was addressed the concept of experimental governance, understood “as a means to launch an environmental project in spite of uncertainties and uphold the project without disrupting the overall process” (Gross, M., & Heinrichs, 2010:283). This point, the authors continues “is wholly pragmatic to create and facilitate the building of a…

  • The new production of knowledge: The dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies

    In this provocative and broad-ranging work, the authors argue that the ways in which knowledge – scientific, social and cultural – is produced are undergoing fundamental changes at the end of the twentieth century. They claim that these changes mark a distinct shift into a new mode of knowledge production which is replacing or reforming…

  • Re-Thinking Science: Knowledge and the Public in an Age of Uncertainty

    “Re-Thinking Science” presents an account of the dynamic relationship between society and science. Despite the mounting evidence of a much closer, interactive relationship between society and science, current debate still seems to turn on the need to maintain a ‘line’ to demarcate them. The view persists that there is a one-way communication flow from science…

  • Why “there is no such thing as economic science”?

    I have recently referred to an interview made to Piketty where he states “there is no such thing as economic science. There are social sciences”. He argues that “economic processes involve social control” and that “we should teach ‪economics‬ much more in conjunction with economic‪ ‎history‬, social history, political history, political science” That said, the…

  • Spurious correlations

    “Spurious correlations” is the name of a website I came across recently. There you can see plenty of cases where correlation may not imply causation. What does it mean in terms of research methods in the social sciences? It means that whenever our research approach is uniquely quantitative, we take the risk of come up with wrong…

  • Why the qualitative approach is essential for every research project?

    “Recently, it was conducted a global survey which sought to answer the following question: Please answer honestly. How in your opinion could be solved the problem of lack of food in many countries in the world?” The survey was a failure because in Africa nobody knew what food means. In France nobody knew what honesty…