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:ID: a3fa6fe3-24e6-4709-95de-59a74beeb523
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#+title: 2016-11-30

* Philosophy of Social Research - Disciplines and Interdisciplinarity :academia:UoN:@personal:
:PROPERTIES:
:CREATED: [2016-11-30 Wed 06:43]
:MODIFIED: [2016-11-30 Wed]
:IMPORTED: [2023-02-08 Wed 19:22]
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Neoliberlisation of the academy and the rule of 'regulatory audit'

mode 1 knowledge and mode 2 knowledge

The old ways of doing thing mean a domination of mode 1, which follows that there is a hierarchy of social sciences, while the current domination of mode 2 means a new practical, problems based trans-disciplinary field of social studies, beyond even interdisciplinary

John does not like this change because it results in the weakening of disciplinary standards'

importer and exporter disciplines

John shows 4 recent studies to identify different aspects of the structure of sociology as a discipline

Comparison between economics and sociology as two exporter disciplines

greater integration of economics as a discipline means that its sub-fields are more likely to be reproduced across national contexts, while those of sociology are much more likely to be subject to national variation.

John is seeing sociology breaking down into smaller, independent disciplines like criminology, social policy, etc... I do not see a strong argument for maintaining a strong, coherent sociology

Does sociology have a core?

John suggests that current forms of research governance in the UK are such that any conventionally represented ‘professional core’ of sociology as well as its supposed ‘critical alternatives’ are both diminished.

In this context, the ‘core’ of the discipline lies not in concepts, categories or in methods (all of which are very significant products of practices of knowledge production), but in a sensibility

My remarks

1. so what?

2. My own remark is how the mode 1 and mode 2 debate is different and
influenced by the debate at natural sciences between basic science and
applied sciences.

3. Perhaps the problem is the current self-perceived boundary of
sociology and its relation to other disciplines. Society as John sees it
is indeed in crisis, but he also wants to see it higher in the hierarchy
of social science than other disciplines. Perhaps what is needed is a
redefinition of what sociology is to encompass the whole of social
science, a centre and periphery or a nebula model of what 'sociology' is
to the rest of the bigger discipline, and a stronger critique at the
other disciplines, namely economics, trying to occupy that central
position. Sociology's sensibility and criticism should be directed
outwards.

Lecture

John is a post-positivist, yet he sees a necessity of keeping disciplines the way they are. No?

Aren't disciplines, like political parties, redundant? All we need is journals, peer-reviewing, and academic associations.

Government political control over universities is now happening by the revocation of Royal Charters, putting them under the government instead of the Privy Council

What is a better model? Privy Council, or two thirds parliamentary majority?

Recruit John to design a higher education model based on regenerative economy, where universities are directly supported by the community

Economics, sociology, psychology have applied interdisciplinarity

Critical interdisciplinarity
