ISSN:
1467-6435
Source:
Blackwell Publishing Journal Backfiles 1879-2005
Topics:
Sociology
,
Economics
Notes:
In the social sciences specialization is just as unavoidable as in other branches of science but requires a counterweight in the form of collaboration between economics, sociology and political science, and between all these and history. Each social structure, a shop, an office, a club, has at the same time economic, political and sociological significance, and is also rooted in the past. Economic activity especially is embedded in non-economic contexts not only in primitive or proto-capitalistic societies - as Karl Polanyi has stated - but always and everywhere, and most economic activities are enveloped by economic contexts.Therefore, if one wants to understand the full meaning of social reality one has to look at it from the point of view of all the social sciences. Today this is often done in regional studies and in city planning. But this spotty kind of interdisciplinary collaboration is insufficient, especially because it does not lay the groundwork for an education in integrated social science. Such science would systematically study all the typical processes, in whatever part of society, which the individual disciplines analyze each from its own viewpoint. This unified kind of social science will exist only when in the scholarly world synthesis is recognized as an endeavor just as valuable and meritorious as specialized research. Recognition for synthesis in social science will also bring two practical problems closer to solution: How good teaching can receive more credit, since the synthesizing approach is essential for the teacher, and how we can loosen up the negative attitude which many of our students display toward scholarly effort because they feel that it is too hyper-specialized to have much relevance to life problems.
Type of Medium:
Electronic Resource
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6435.1966.tb00846.x
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