Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T09:55:02.641Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

What Is the Value of Social Science? Challenges for Researchers and Government Funders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 December 2013

Arthur Lupia*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan

Extract

It is a great honor to have been invited to deliver the Ithiel de Sola Pool lecture. Professor de Sola Pool had a tremendous influence on scholarship and practice. His work describes the ways in which evolving technologies fundamentally alter communicative expectations and social outcomes. Years after their publication, works such as Technologies of Freedom (1984) continue to provide insight about how the networked communications are changing the world. Professor de Sola Pool's work is of great public value. In what follows, I want to focus our attention on the value of social science today.

Type
The 2013 Ithiel de Sola Pool Lecture
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bartlett, Tom. 2012. “Is Psychology About to Come Undone.” Posted by The Chronicle of Higher Education on April 17. Available at: http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/is-psychology-about-to-come-undone/29045.Google Scholar
Brady, Henry E., and Collier, David (eds.) 2010. Rethinking Social Inquiry: Diverse Methods, Shared Standards, 2nd Edition. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield.Google Scholar
Cantor, Eric. 2013. “Remarks by Majority Leader Eric Cantor.” Posted by the American Enterprise Institute, February 5. Available at: http://www.aei.org/article/politics-and-public-opinion/legislative/house/remarks-by-majority-leader-eric-cantor-as-prepared-for-delivery/.Google Scholar
Cantor, Eric, and Smith, Lamar. 2013. “Rethinking Science Funding.” Posted by USA Today on September 30. Available at http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2013/09/30/cantor-gop-budget-science-spending-column/2896333/.Google Scholar
Coburn, Tom. 2011. “Dr. Coburn Releases New Report Exposing Waste, Management at the National Science Foundation.” Posted by Senator Coburn on May 26. Available at: http://www.coburn.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/pressreleases?ContentRecord_id=8a114193-dcf7-4ae8-ae8b-146797e5c162.Google Scholar
Davis, Matthew M., and Fant, Kathryn. 2005. “Coverage of Vaccines in Private Health Plans: What Does the Public Prefer?Health Affairs 24: 770–79.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Sola Pool, Ithiel. 1984. Technologies of Freedom: On Free Speech in an Electronic Age. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
De Sola Pool, Ithiel, and Kochen, Manfred. 1978. “Contacts and Influence.” Social Networks 1: 551.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Elman, Colin, and Kapieszewski, Diana. 2014. “Data Access and Research Transparency in the Qualitative Tradition.” PS: Political Science and Politics 47 (1): this issue. Google Scholar
Farrell, Henry. 2013. “Tom Coburn Doesn't Like Political Science.” Posted by The Chronicle of Higher Education on March 22. Available at: http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/03/22/tom-coburn-doesnt-like-political-science/.Google Scholar
Gigerenzer, Gerd, Todd, Peter M., and Group, the ABC Research. 1999. Simple Heuristics That Make Us Smart. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Holden, Matthew. 2000. “The Competence of Political Science: ‘Progress in Political Research’ Revisited.” Presidential Address, American Political Science Association 1999.” American Political Science Review 94: 119.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Isaac, Jeffrey C. 2013. “Public Inquiry and Democracy: Should the National Science Foundation Fund Political Science Research?” Posted by Dissent Magazine, March 28. Available at: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/blog/public-inquiry-and-democracy-should-the-national-science-foundation-fund-political-science-research.Google Scholar
King, Gary, Keohane, Robert O., and Verba, Sidney. 1994. Designing Social Inquiry. Scientific Inference in Qualitative Research. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krugman, Paul. 2013. “The Ignorance Caucus.” Posted by New York Times, February 10. Available at: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/opinion/krugman-the-ignorance-caucus.html.Google Scholar
Loftis, Kenyatha V., and Lupia, Arthur. 2008. “Using the Internet to Create Research Opportunities and Facilitate Large-Scale Mentoring: Lessons from the Virtual Communities of TESS and the ANES.” PS: Political Science and Politics 41 (3): 547–50.Google Scholar
Lupia, Arthur. 2000. “Evaluating Political Science Research: Information for Buyers and Sellers.” PS: Political Science and Politics 33 (1): 713.Google Scholar
Lupia, Arthur. 2012. “Political Science in Peril.” Science 337: 1452–453.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lupia, Arthur. 2013. “Communicating Science in Politicized Environments.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 110: 14033–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lupia, Arthur, and Alter, George. 2014. “Data Access and Research Transparency in the Quantitative Tradition.” PS: Political Science and Politics 47 (1): this issue. Google Scholar
Lupia, Arthur, and Elman, Colin. 2014. “Openness in Political Science: Data Access and Research Transparency.” PS: Political Science and Politics 47(1): this issue. Google Scholar
Lupia, Arthur, and McCubbins, Mathew D.. 1998. The Democratic Dilemma: Can Citizens Learn What They Need to Know? New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Nature. 2012. “A Different Agenda: An Attempt by Congress to Save Money by Not Funding Political Science Seems to be Motivated by Ideological Rather Than Financial Reasons.” Nature 487: 271. doi:10.1038/487271a.Google Scholar
Noah, Timothy. 2013. “Political Science in the Crosshairs: Republicans Defund Academic Studies Whose Lessons They Don't Want to Learn.” Posted by The New Republic, March 22. Available at: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/112744/gop-defunds-political-science-studies-national-science-foundation.Google Scholar
Open Science Collaboration. 2013. “The Reproducibility Project: A Model of Large-Scale Collaboration for Empirical Research on Reproducibility.” Posted on the Social Science Research Network, January 4. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2195999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prewitt, Kenneth, Schwandt, Thomas A., and Straf, Miron L. (eds.) 2012. Using Science as Evidence in Policy. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.Google Scholar
Prewitt, Kenneth. 2013. “Is Any Science Safe?Science 340: 525.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Twain, Mark. 1906. “Chapters from My Autobiography.” North American Review, September 7. Google Scholar
Weidmann, Nils B., and Salehyan, Idean. 2013. “Violence and Ethnic Segregation: A Computational Model Applied to Baghdad.” International Studies Quarterly 57: 5264.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, Chris. 2013. “Is the Economy Getting Better? Depends Whether You Think Like an Obama or a Romney.” Posted by Yahoo.com, May 8. Available at http://news.yahoo.com/is-the-economy-getting-better-obama-view-romney-view-interactive-map-145414541.html.Google Scholar
Wilson, Rick K. 2013. “The War on Social Science.” Posted by Symposium Magazine on July 8. Available at http://www.symposium-magazine.com/the-war-on-social-science-rick-k-wilson/.Google Scholar