Making Political Science Matter
Debating Knowledge, Research, and Method
Published on 27. November 2006
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-0-8147-4032-3 (ISBN)
Description
Making Political Science Matter brings together a number of prominent scholars to discuss the state of the field of Political Science. In particular, these scholars are interested in ways to reinvigorate the discipline by connecting it to present day political struggles. Uniformly well-written and steeped in a strong sense of history, the contributors consider such important topics as: the usefulness of rational choice theory; the ethical limits of pluralism; the use (and misuse) of empirical research in political science; the present-day divorce between political theory and empirical science; the connection between political science scholarship and political struggles, and the future of the discipline. This volume builds on the debate in the discipline over the significance of the work of Bent Flyvbjerg, whose book Making Social Science Matter has been characterized as a manifesto for the Perestroika Movement that has roiled the field in recent years.
Contributors include: Brian Caterino, Stewart Clegg, Bent Flyvbjerg, Mary Hawkesworth, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, Gregory J. Kasza, David Kettler, David D. Laitin, Timothy W. Luke, Theodore R. Schatzki, Sanford F. Schram, Peregrine Schwartz-Shea, Corey S. Shdaimah, Roland W. Stahl, and Leslie Paul Thiele.
Contributors include: Brian Caterino, Stewart Clegg, Bent Flyvbjerg, Mary Hawkesworth, Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, Gregory J. Kasza, David Kettler, David D. Laitin, Timothy W. Luke, Theodore R. Schatzki, Sanford F. Schram, Peregrine Schwartz-Shea, Corey S. Shdaimah, Roland W. Stahl, and Leslie Paul Thiele.
Reviews / Votes
Devotees of the perestroika movement will find many of the chapters reinforce their views of the field. . . . Recommended. (Choice) A bold call to rethink political science. The authors imagine a discipline that challenges power, challenges society, and challenges the ways we think. Making Political Science Matter is a wise, erudite, broad-ranging, sometimes witty gauntlet tossed before contemporary scholarship. It is more than a book, it is a movement. - James A. Morone,author of Hellfire Nation: The Politics of Sin in American History A significant and thoughtful discussion of key issues in the philosophy of social science, one designed to encourage a richer variety of methodological work in political science. - Kristen Renwick Monroe,editor of Perestroika! The Raucous Rebellion in Political Science This edited collection offers and up-to-date and very readable discussion of knowledge, research, and method in the political sciences and social studies more generally, suitable for academics and doctoral students alike. - Thomas Ahrens,University of Warwick This well-written and accessible collection will be an invaluable resource for students and academics in social sciences in general. (Swedish Society for Anthropology and Geography) Articulates and debates the idea that academic work should be primarily concerned with addressing the largest and most immediate challenges faced by societies. (Urban Studies)More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
601 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8147-4032-3 (9780814740323)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Persons
Sanford F. Schram teaches social theory and social policy in the Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research at Bryn Mawr College where he also teaches research methods for undergraduate political science majors. He is the author of several books including Words of Welfare: The Poverty of Social Science and the Social Science of Poverty which won the Michael Harrington Award from the American Political Science Association and Welfare Discipline: Discourse, Governance, and Globalization.
Brian Caterino is an independent scholar and has taught at the University of Rochester, the New School, and the State University of New York, Brockport. He lives in Rochester, New York.
Brian Caterino is an independent scholar and has taught at the University of Rochester, the New School, and the State University of New York, Brockport. He lives in Rochester, New York.
Content
ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction: Reframing the Debate Brian Caterino and Sanford F. SchramPart I: The Flyvbjerg Debate1. Return to Politics: Perestroika, Phronesis, and Post-Paradigmatic Political ScienceSanford F. Schram2. The Perestroikan Challenge to Social Science David D. Laitin3. A Perestroikan Straw Man Answers Back: David Laitin and Phronetic Political ScienceBent Flyvbjerg4. A Statistician Strikes Out: In Defense of Genuine Methodological DiversityPatrick Thaddeus Jackson5. Re?ections on Doing Phronetic Social Science: A Case StudyCorey S. Shdaimah and Roland W. StahlPart II: Phronesis Reconsidered6. Social Science in Society Theodore Schatzki7. Power and Interpretation Brian Caterino8. Contesting the Terrain: Flyvbjerg on Facts, Value, Knowledge, and PowerMary Hawkesworth9. The Bounds of Rationality Stewart Clegg10. Making Intuition Matter Leslie Paul ThielePart III: Making Political Science Matter11. Conundrums in the Practice of Pluralism Peregrine Schwartz-Shea12. Unearthing the Roots of Hard Science: A Program for Graduate StudentsGreg J. Kasza13. Political Science and Political Theory: The Heart of the MatterDavid Kettler14. Finding New Mainstreams: Perestroika, Phronesis, and Political Science in the United StatesTimothy W. LukeReferences About the Contributors Index