The golden age of social science

Abstract

Social science is entering a golden age, marked by the confluence of explosive growth in new data and analytic methods, interdisciplinary approaches, and a recognition that these ingredients are necessary to solve the more challenging problems facing our world. We discuss how developing a “lingua franca” can encourage more interdisciplinary research, providing two case studies (social networks and behavioral economics) to illustrate this theme. Several exemplar studies from the past 12 y are also provided. We conclude by addressing the challenges that accompany these positive trends, such as career incentives and the search for unifying frameworks, and associated best practices that can be employed in response.

Welcome to the Real World: Escaping the Sociology of Culture and Cognition

“…Although claims about a "golden age of social science" (Buyalskaya, Gallo, and Camerer 2021) might be somewhat exaggerated, there is something brewing outside of sociology that is worthy of our attention. I have tried to persuade my fellow cultural sociologists that we should abandon the Comtean simulation of "the sociology of culture and cognition" and venture into the outside world.…”

“…Researchers from behavioral economics, computer science, evolutionary and cultural anthropology, neuroscience, philosophy, politics, psychology, and other fields are talking with each other about things sociologists would consider central to "culture and cognition. " For the most part, despite their differences, they have learned to at least speak the same language (Buyalskaya, Gallo, and Camerer 2021;Vaisey and Valentino 2018).…”

“…The only possible justification for staying out of this "golden age of social science" (Buyalskaya, Gallo, and Camerer 2021) is the belief that they-but not us-are all on the wrong track. Unless we are willing to assert that all these scholars are irredeemably confused because they didn't read Marx, Weber, and Durkheim in graduate school, I think we're missing out by not joining the party.…”

The ‘Oumuamua Encounter: How Modern Cosmology Handled Its First Black Swan

“…A longer-lived focus comes from establishment of centers that promote multidisciplinary evaluation of clearly defined questions. The standalone Santa Fe Institute, for example, selects large problems, such as why some economies outperform and engages researchers from dozens of disciplines [38].…”

North and South: Naming practices and the hidden dimension of global disparities in knowledge production

“…Social science subfields, such as development studies, demography, and political science, may be more likely to study geographically bound problems (e.g., population dynamics or pension systems) and therefore more likely to use a country's names in the title than other subfields, such as psychology. In particular, researchers claiming to study universal problems might resist the call to specify the geographic provenance of their sample (Buyalskaya, Gallo, and Camerer 2021;Kahalon et al 2021).…”