A new issue of the Graduate Journal of Social Science is out. Bent Flyvbjerg (Oxford): Making Social Science Matter. Karthick Ramakrishnan (UC-Riverside): Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Urgency of Public Relevance. From LSE Review of Books, Jason Brock reviews Cold War Social Science: Knowledge Production, Liberal Democracy, and Human Nature; and Kye Barker reviews Shaky Foundations: The Politics-Patronage-Social Science Nexus in Cold War America by Mark Solovey. Adam Gurri on how betting can improve the social sciences. Michael S. Lubell on why social science research matters. Let’s shake up the social sciences: It is time to create new social science departments that reflect the breadth and complexity of the problems we face as well as the novelty of 21st-century science (and a response). Andrew Gelman on why the old paradigm of a single definitive study in the social sciences should be abandoned. Social science’s noun of thorns: Michael Billig on the weaknesses of a discipline’s usage. Claude S. Fischer on the elusive quest for research innovation: Much of what is considered “new research” has actually been around for a while — but that does not mean it lacks value. “Nudge” back in fashion at White House: Courtney Subramanian on how Barack Obama’s newest initiative finds inspiration from social scientists who are trying to transform government throughout the world.
