Scientific Engagement in Social Transformations: Phronetic Social Science

Document Type : .

Authors

1 Institute for Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran

2 Institute for Humanities and Developed Political Studies

Abstract

the positivist social science usually has been under attack due to its theoretical approach and incapability to affect the social transformations. However, the opposite front, whose stress is on the applicability of the social science, is too criticized for its neglecting of the agilities of the social life such as the power-effect and the complex network of discursive activities which surely affect the semi-real social problems. In response to such weakness points, the Phronetic approach to social science believes that the researcher’s engagement in the process of problem-solving would help not only to overcome the non-applicability of the results, but also to consider the underneath theoretical foundations of the socio-political phenomena. Thus, phronetically studying, the researcher is not a mere observer anymore, but the engaged actor, for whom the human lived experience and its situatedness are the keys to his/her participation in policy-making. In other words, unlike the normal researchers, whose interest is to publish new books and papers, as a virtuous social agent, the phronetic researcher should follow the subject as an active player to fill the exchanging results in his/her own real-life, which leads to a better life. Explaining different aspects of the phronetic approach in social science, the present study attempts to present advantages of the approach in scientific exploring towards social transformation.

Keywords

References

ارسطو (۱۳۷۸)، اخلاق نیکوماخوس، ترجمه محمدحسن لطفی، چاپ اول، تهران، انتشارات خوارزمی.
 
Basu, R. (2012), Spatial phronesis: a case study in geosurveillance, in: Real social science: applied phronesis, 264-284.
Clegg, S., Flyvbjerg, B., & Haugaard, M. (2014), Reflections on phronetic social science: a dialogue between Stewart Clegg, Bent Flyvbjerg and Mark Haugaard, in: Journal of Political Power, 7(2), 275-306.
Eubanks, V. (2012), Feminist phronesis and technologies of citizenship, in: Real social science: applied phronesis, 228-245.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2001), Making social science matter: Why social inquiry fails and how it can succeed again, Cambridge university press.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2005), Social science that matters, in: Foresight Europe, 2, 38-42.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2012), Why mass media matter and how to work with them: Phronesis and megaprojects, in: Real social science: Applied phronesis, 95-121.
Flyvbjerg, B., Landman, T., & Schram, S. (2012), Important next steps in phronetic social science, in: Real social science: Applied phronesis, 285-297.
Flyvbjerg, B., Landman, T., & Schram, S. (2016), Tension points: Learning to make social science matter, in: Critical Policy Studies.
Flyvbjerg, B., Landman, T., & Schram, S. (Eds.). (2012), Real social science: Applied phronesis, Cambridge University Press.
Flyvbjerg, B., Landman, T., & Schram, S. F. (2012), Introduction: New directions in social science, in: Real social science: Applied phronesis, 1-14.
Gimbel, E. W. (2013), Making Political Science Matter? Phronetic Social Science in Theory and Practice, in: Perspectives on Politics, 11(4), 1139-1143.
Griggs, S., & Howarth, D. (2012). Phronesis and Critical Policy Analysis: Heathrow’s ‘Third Runway’ and the Politics of Sustainable Aviation in the United Kingdom, in: Real Social Science: Applied Phronesis, 167-203.
Hammersley, Martyn (2007), "Phronesis and Phronetic Social Science," in: George Ritzer, ed., Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, Oxford, Blackwell.
Landman, T. (2012), Phronesis and narrative analysis, in: Real social science: Applied phronesis, 27-47.
Olsen, T. D., Payne, L. A., & Reiter, A. G. (2012), Amnesty in the age of accountability: Brazil in comparative context, in: Real Social Science: Applied Phronesis, 204-227.
Sandercock, L., & Attili, G. (2012), Unsettling a settler society: Film, Phronesis and Collaborative Planning in Small-town Canada, in: Real social science: Applied phronesis, 137-166.
Schram, S, & Caterino, B. (Eds.) (2006), Making political science matter: Debating knowledge, research, and method, New York, New York University Press.
Schram, S. (2012), Phronetic social science: An idea whose time has come, in: Real social science: Applied phronesis, 15-26.
Shdaimah, C., & Stahl, R. (2012), Power and conflict in collaborative research, in: Real Social Science: Applied Phronesis, 122-137.
Simmons, W. P. (2012), Making the teaching of social justice matter, in: Real social science: Applied phronesis, 246-263.
Wallerstein, Immaunuel. (1996), Open the social sciences: Report of the Gulbenkian Commission on the restructuring of the social sciences, Stanford, Stanford University Press.

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics