Article S9.4 Relevance of Social Science Research Seminar Leader: Amit Bhaduri Professor Emeritus, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India abhaduri40[at]hotmail.com Social research needs to be multidisciplinary, especially when one tries to understand or address a social problem. The way research is done in universities can be quite different from the way it is done when one tries to address a real-world problem. Social research in universities may focus on one discipline, but research to understand or address a social problem has to be multidisciplinary in nature. Bhaduri gave the example of the recent issues of Indian black money in Swiss banks. The problem involves the state, tax system, and speculation about Indian currency. Any real-life problem tends to have multiple dimensions, which can relate to different disciplines, such as economics, political science, sociology, and psychology. Sometimes researchers get confined to specific disciplines, following the disciplinary conventions and methods assiduously. This creates a challenge because the insights from disciplinary research become difficult to communicate to nonexperts. Moreover, discipline-based insights fail to convince any audience outside a specific discipline, because such insights appear one-dimensional. That is why social science research often appears unproductive and social science disciplines, professionally sterile. Bhaduri cited examples of prominent economists, Adam Smith, David Ricardo, John Maynard Keynes and the sociologist Max Weber. He argued that these individuals could excel and contribute to society because they had a hold on multiple disciplines. For example, Adam Smith was an economist, social scientist, as well as philosopher. They did not confine themselves to narrow disciplines. They derived knowledge from different disciplines in order to understand a phenomenon of interest. Each discipline has its own preferred methods. Examples of anthropology, sociology, and economics were discussed. In cultural anthropology, participant observation is the common method. Using this method, the researcher has to be an insider in a social group, to some extent. Playing as an insider, the researcher will try to understand why a social group engages in certain actions and why its members follow certain rules. Sociology as a discipline is closely related to other disciplines, such as history, anthropology, and psychology. Sociology seeks to identify and interpret relationships among social actors, with a view of explain and manage social issues. An example is the relationship between state and market. Sociological studies of this relationship in different contexts have led to important debates concerning effective coordination between market forces and the regulatory process. Economics as a discipline appears to be polarised between two competing doctrines: economic individualism and socialism. The former doctrine aims at explaining broad social developments in terms of aggregations of individual decisions. The latter doctrine argues that conclusions about a society cannot be drawn entirely on the basis of individual decisions. What is true of an individual may not be true of the society. Various other disciplines, such as sociology, psychology, and anthropology have shed light on this issue. To the extent individual behaviour is autonomous, economic analysis cannot ignore the doctrine of individualism. Likewise, to the extent individual behaviour is conditioned by social reality, economic analysis cannot ignore the doctrine of socialism. Social science research can help us in revising our understanding of social events. The example of the seemingly Hindu-Christian communal riots in the Kandhamal district of Orissa was discussed. Bhaduri’s fieldwork in riot-hit Kandhamal indicated that the insurgence was not primarily due to communal clashes between Hindus and Christians, rather it was between two economically depressed groups -- the tribal (scheduled tribe) and nontribal (scheduled caste) groups. The underlying reason appeared to be the issue of land alienation. Used as a research method, fieldwork can generate new insights, taking our understanding beyond popular accounts of social events. Copyleft Xavier Institute of Management, Xavier Square, Bhubaneswar 751013, India Research World (ISSN 0974-2379) http://www1.ximb.ac.in/RW.nsf/pages/Home | ||
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