New Approaches to Social Science
Law and Other Sciences: What Is the Contemporary Status of Law Science?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dovile Valanciene
Interdisciplinarity is a very important feature of the new science. In this stage it is useful to examine the extent to which the sciences/fields (areas) (web of science categories) and law science are engaged in integration and dialogue, by examining the frequency and the ways in which our selected concept „legal“ is used in the most representative selected scientific database (we chose a representative database of research articles—Thomson Reuters (ISI) Web of Science), and consider how that concept is used (the context of the concept). The aim of this research: after a review of the most fundamental features of the new interdisciplinary science and its impact in encouraging sciences to seek dialogue, this article examines the connections and integrations law science and other sciences/fields (areas) and to answer the question what is the contemporary status of law science. The research methodology is a systematic and logical analysis of new science in terms of its most common features and approach to interdisciplinarity, as well as an empirical analysis of the content and the quantity of the studies. The main finding: it is high time to change the approach to science itself. Legal science should become increasingly open to cognition, innovation, and changes. Our research shows that legal science dialogue is growing with other sciences (e. g., from economics to literature and neurosciences). This research is funded by the European Social Fund under the No 09.3.3-LMT-K-712 “Development of Competences of Scientists, other Researchers and Students through Practical Research Activities” measure.
Applied Social Sciences: A Canadian Case of Research in Action at the Doctoral Level
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Hassan Wafai, Mary Bernard
In Canada, not unlike many other countries, most conventional university doctoral programs do not adequately prepare graduates for employment outside of academia, and yet the reality is that eighty percent of graduates will gain employment in the private and public sectors, outside of universities. In our particularly turbulent times of global and local dichotomies, market requirements require, more than ever, problem solving applied research skills from an interdisciplinary perspective. The Canadian Association for Graduate Studies has made innovation in doctoral programming a priority at its annual conference in each of the past three years. This paper will focus on the Canadian experience with particular attention to the development of new Doctor of Business Administration at Royal Roads University. Methods include a review of the literature on innovation in doctoral education, an analysis of existing evaluations of the Doctor of Social Sciences program at RRU using similar principles to the DBA, and preliminary analysis of initial BC university, government and private sector feedback on the DBA proposal. The implications of the work are to provide an analysis of a research-based doctoral program oriented to applied, interdisciplinary, business management research and to explore how students can independently develop original, impactful interdisciplinary applied research on the practice of management.
Naturalist Realism and Social Science: Moving beyond the Local-Global Tension in Science
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session David JF Maree
Two prominent epistemological approaches in social science are positivism and social constructionism. Social constructionism symbolizes the primacy of the social against the individualist hegemony of an objectivist and universalist science steeped in empiricism. Apparently, the constructionist epistemological interests are local and fundamentally opposes positivism's global tendencies. This paper argues that both approaches are mistaken and would not be able to solve local-global polarities and aspirations. After a brief critical look at the critical realism of Bhaskar who strived to move beyond this dualism with an explicit naturalist ontology, this paper proposes a naturalist realist ontology and epistemology. Naturalist realism provides the proper grounding for a theory of science for social science (and psychology) by clarifying what science is, what social and psychological reality involves, and how epistemic access is facilitated. In essence, the basis of a naturalist realism is critical difference, ontologically grounded and the paper indicates how this understanding allows a movement beyond the local-global tendencies of positivism and constructionism.
