Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How it Can Succeed Again (Paperback)

~ (Author), Steven Sampson (Translator) "When the May 1996 issue of the journal Social Text appeared, an issue devoted to the understanding of "Science Wars," the editors became targets in..." (more)
Key Phrases: phronetic research, bias toward verification, epistemic science, Aalborg Project, Habits of the Heart, Michel Foucault (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Excellent ... timely ... a thoughtful vision of social science." -- American Political Science Review

"Exceptional ... fascinating ... an open invitation ... should be read by all self-declared scientists of whatever persuasion." -- Current Anthropology

"Fascinating ... thorough ... deserves wide and serious attention among social scientists and social policy planners and implementers." -- Choice

"Flyvbjerg's book is important and I would recommend it to all researchers of urban affairs ... a key reference." -- Urban Studies

"Gives renewed hope and direction for the future of the social sciences ... compelling." -- International Social Science Review

Review

"This is a book I have been waiting for for a long time. It opens up entirely new perspectives for social science by showing us that abandoning the aspiration to be like natural science is the beginning of wisdom about what we can and ought to be doing instead. It is a landmark book that deserves the widest possible reading and discussion." Robert Bellah, Professor of Sociology, Emeritus, at University of California, Berkeley

"[Flyvbjerg] convinces the reader that applied social sciences have a valuable destiny, and that context dependent research is worthwhile...this book provides researchers in the field of urban studies with very useful tools and guidelines for getting involved with case studies and context dependent research." CJUR

"This brilliant contextualization of social inquiry, hinging on both Aristotle and Foucault, gives new meaning to the concept of praxis. It will be of interest to everyone concerned with making democracy work." Ed Soja, School of Public Policy, University of California, Los Angeles

"This is social science that matters." Pierre Bourdieu, Director of Studies at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, and Director of the Centre de Sociologie Européenne

"This brilliant contextualization of social inquiry, hinging on both Aristotle and Foucault, gives new meaning to the concept of praxis. It will be of interest to everyone concerned with making democracy work." Ed Soja, School of Public Policy, University of California, Los Angeles

"In seeking to move beyond the science wars, his engaging and thoughtful book provides welcome relief from the polemical arrogence of self-serving protagonists and uncritical analysts." Current Anthropology

"Flyvbjerg, author of Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice, an innovative, fine-grained and civically-engaged study of local power in Denmark, here reflects, in accessible and pleasurable prose, on large, challenging questions: What, fundamentally, makes social science different from natural science? Why is it relatively so poor in producing cumulative and predictive theories? What kinds of knowledge should it seek and with what methods? His answers, drawing on Nietzsche, Foucault, Bourdieu and others, are worth the close attention of those predisposed to reject them out of hand." Steven Lukes, New York University

"Flyvberg clearly demonstrates that there are models more appropriate to the social sciences than those derived from molecular biology, high-energy physics, the mathematical theory of games, and other up-market, hard-fact enterprises. But Flyvberg's suggestive, well-written little book both reviews most of the apparent possibilities and establishes standards (practical and political, ethical and methodological) by which to measure their progress." Science

"Flyvbjerg offers a strong case for his main thesis and, therefore, this work deserves wide and serious attention among social scientists and social policy planners and implementers." Choice

"This book is a thoughtful antidote to the simple views that see social science as a science like any other--positivistic science. It begins with a well-grounded empirical case of the development and application of expert knowledge, then... concludes with some salient observations based on the author's own feedback and research practice." Public Administration Quarterly

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Product Details

• Paperback: 216 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (January 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 052177568X
• ISBN-13: 978-0521775687
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #206,328 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Empowering Stuff, September 14, 2001

By	Mark C Freestone "mawxysm" (Nottingham, UK) - See all my reviews

On the back of this book is a short endorsement: "This is social science that matters." Fairly innocuous, I'm sure you'll agree. Yet it wasn't the quotation that caught my eye: rather the name of the endorser, one M. Pierre Bourdieu. As anyone familiar with his work will know, Bourdieu - currently the world's leading sociologist - does not endorse books, because (he argues) to do so is to play the 'back-slapping' and unmistakeably self-interested game of citations and counter-endorsements which makes or breaks today's academic careers. So why, then, does the ascetically-principled high priest of Sociology deign to break the habit of a lifetime for this unassuming work? The simple answer is: it really is that good. This is the first work of social theory/methodology for a long time which actually made me enthusiastic about the future of the social sciences outside the insulated groves of academia. By re-inventing the Aristotelian concept of "phronesis" - essentially a form of reasoning which is neither scientific (in the sense of following universal rules) nor technical (being something which is simply 'done' without rational reflection), but geared towards the "deliberation of values with reference to praxis" - Flyvbjerg finds a solid ground from which to start fighting back against previously devastating critiques which quite rightly ask questions such as "social science: so what?". Rather than seeking to answer this criticism by producing universal rules along the lines of the natural sciences, he argues, social science should aim to generate "power-conscious" interventions geared towards opening dialogue and generating consensus which will enable society to move forward. Social science, for Flyvbjerg, becomes an arena of expertise which seeks not to tell people "what to do" or "why they are doing", but rather to ask "where they are going" and "is this desirable?". As someone on the verge of 'losing his faith' in the pursuit of social science as a meangingful discipline with something to offer back to its object of study, this book has totally rejuvinated my enthusiasm and, as such, I find it hard to recommend it highly enough. Flyvbjerg is far from inscrutable - he falls back on unconvincing Habermasian talk of consensual validity when trying to explain how social research will actually make an impact, and his appropriation of Foucault and Nietzsche as methodological mentors makes me nervous - but for me this only adds to the book's charm. Consistent with the author's argument, no line of thought, not even the positivist search for 'socal rules', is rejected out of hand, but rather "thought through" in the hope of extracting the good bits and throwing out the waffle. And that is precisely how I believe this book should be read - and you definitely *should* read it - except that waffle is refreshingly thin on the ground.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Science that matters, September 17, 2009

By	Abons - See all my reviews

Flyvbjerg's genius lies in his ability to tie the past to the future in exploring the relevance of social science. Flyvbjerg starts with the past by using Aristotle's concept of phronesis to connect with the historical value of social science. Social science, the science of human affairs, is uniquely situated to explore phronesis (practical knowledge and ethics). Yet, as Flyvbjerg elegantly describes, social science has fell away from the important concepts of context, experience and intuition. These concepts should be at the core of social science. For too long social science has attempted to imitate the natural sciences in developing context independent explanations and predictions. Flyvbjerg is successful in describing how a social science that no longer attempts to imitate natural science would flourish in the pursuit of phronesis.

Flyvbjerg defends the rational for doing the kind of socially relevant science that I have come to value as a PhD student in occupational science. Flyvbjerg defends my study of social issues, such as health disparities that exist in inner cities, by drawing on Nietzsche, Foucault and Bourdieu in a way that is readable and efficient. He asserts that there is a space for social science to be important, thus the term science that truly matters. By going beyond the attempts to imitate or compete with natural science, social scientists have room to claim their own territory. He essentially leaves the social scientists with a reason to continue believing in the importance of the work they do. He gives social scientists the tools to protect themselves against the attacks of the natural science.

Yet, Flyvbjerg does not merely attempt to defend the current form of social science. Flyvbjerg attempts to correct the flailing trajectory of social science by proposing a methodology for current and future social science research. This methodology is not so much an imperative as a push towards phronesis. Flyvbjerg's proposed methodology effectively shifts the focus of this book from the philosophical past to a practical present. Flyvbjerg gives guidance to the newly empowered social scientist through defining important indicators to create a social science that matters. These important methodological considerations should be part of the decision making process for anyone considering social research.

Flyvbjerg's vision for the future culminates in what I like to think of as a call to arms. He calls on social scientists to take up problems that matter in ways that matter. Once these problems are addressed results must be effectively communicated to fellow citizens. This creates a social science relevant and important that is delivered where it matters the most, to the people. For the social scientist, this call to arms can be as rousing as Mel Gibson's William Wallace in Braveheart. For the survival of social scientists there is only one possible future, making science that matters.

4.0 out of 5 stars Self-awareness and self-criticism from a true scholar, November 8, 2009

By	Ryan C. Holiday (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a shockingly honest and self-critical book about sociology. If you took a women's studies or humanities class in college, you could be excused for thinking that the entire field is dominated by intellectually dishonest hacks. If you'd read much on your own by the time you got to the classroom like I had, you probably also found it difficult to contain yourself throughout the lectures. Fyvbjerg hopes to change that. See, the social sciences have a strange relationship with the scientific method. They want the respect that comes with the findings but none of the rigor that goes along with adhering to its rules.

Aristotle wrote of three types of knowledge: epistme (scientific), techne (technical know-how) and phronesis (understanding and ethics). Instead of trying to shoehorn the study of people into epistme, Fyvbjerg asks social scientists to embrace phronesis. He wants them to abandon the idea that you can distill an infinite amount of human variables into some predictive theory and focus on asking a few simple questions about the subjects they study. "Where are we going?" "Who benefits and who loses?" "Is this desirable?" I've written about phronesis before, and I described it as sort of a practical, intuitive understanding. MSSM is saying that we deserve social scientists who practice this kind of expert knowledge, rather than pseudo-scientists looking for confirmation of their political beliefs.

I have one criticism of this book. It's written in exactly the kind of dense, academic style that he's supposedly trying to get us to give up. As a result, it often feels like it exists in some Ivy League vacuum, rather than the real, gritty world that social sciences live in. It's the wrong tone for a book of this kind of importance and its influence has suffered accordingly. If you can push through it, you realize that you can skip whole sections and pages without missing anything. This is bad for him but good for you. Definitely read this.