Making the Moral Case for Social Sciences

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-vi

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Karl Spracklen

   Pages 1-7

3. The Attack on Social Sciences

   • Karl Spracklen

   Pages 8-29

4. The Weakness of the Defence

   • Karl Spracklen

   Pages 30-51

5. The Moral Case for the Social Sciences

   • Karl Spracklen

   Pages 52-71

6. Conclusion

   • Karl Spracklen

   Pages 72-79

7. Back Matter

   Pages 80-90

   PDF

The social sciences have a legitimacy problem in the modern world. The natural sciences are viewed as 'proper science' by journalists and policy-makers because they discover 'truths', make money, and help governments solve problems. In turn, defenders of the social sciences borrow the language of instrumentality, profit and policy impact. Karl Spracklen, by contrast, makes the moral case for the social sciences, arguing that they are a necessary social good capable of fighting inequality and revealing the workings of hegemonic power.

• Social sciences
• power
• hegemony
• moral case
• social good
• Defence
• government
• Moral
• morality
• quality
• social science

"Karl Spracklen issues a clarion call for critical thinkers in all the social sciences to unite and fight. He argues that the social sciences inevitably lose when they accept the impact agenda that more easily fits the natural sciences and their associated technologies. This book shows that there is an alternative case for the social sciences. It is called critical thinking that has a lineage which runs from Ancient Greece and Rome, through Europe's renaissance and enlightenment, into modern social theories. The clarion call will certainly rouse many sociologists, but Spracklen also addresses economists and,psychologists; indeed students and scholars in all the arts and humanities." - Ken Roberts, University of Liverpool, UK
 
"Professor Spracklen has written a trenchant critique of modern social science that everyone in this field must read. Masterfully grounded in the relevant history and philosophy from ancient Greece to the present, unlike most other such critiques, heends by highlighting the moral strengths of the social sciences. We pursue them, he says, for the pleasure of doing and discovering, for the fact that they enable us to flourish as humans and develop as happier and equal individuals, and for their capacity to help us resist the instrumentality, injustice and inequality presently plaguing modern society. This is our moral basis." - Robert Stebbins, University of Calgary, Canada
"Karl Spracklen issues a clarion call for critical thinkers in all the social sciences to unite and fight. He argues that the social sciences inevitably lose when they accept the impact agenda that more easily fits the natural sciences and their associated technologies. This book shows that there is an alternative case for the social sciences. It is called critical thinking that has a lineage which runs from Ancient Greece and Rome, through Europe's renaissance and enlightenment, into modern social theories. The clarion call will certainly rouse many sociologists, but Spracklen also addresses economists and,psychologists; indeed students and scholars in all the arts and humanities." - Ken Roberts, University of Liverpool, UK

 

"Professor Spracklen has written a trenchant critique of modern social science that everyone in this field must read. Masterfully grounded in the relevant history and philosophy from ancient Greece to the present, unlike most other such critiques,he ends by highlighting the moral strengths of the social sciences. We pursue them, he says, for the pleasure of doing and discovering, for the fact that they enable us to flourish as humans and develop as happier and equal individuals, and for their capacity to help us resist the instrumentality, injustice and inequality presently plaguing modern society. This is our moral basis." - Robert Stebbins, University of Calgary, Canada

• Leeds Beckett University, UK

  Karl Spracklen

Karl Spracklen is a Professor of Leisure Studies at Leeds Beckett University, UK. He is an active scholar in leisure studies, sociology and music studies. He was Chair of the Leisure Studies Association, and is the author of over seventy publications, including Whiteness and Leisure (2013), and Digital Leisure (2015).

Policies and ethics