Return to Meaning - A Social Science with Something to Say (Hardcover)

This book argues that we are currently witnessing not merely a decline in the quality of social science research, but the proliferation of meaningless research, of no value to society, and modest value to its authors - apart from securing employment and promotion. The explosion of published outputs, at least in social science, creates a noisy, cluttered environment which makes meaningful research difficult, as different voices compete to capture the limelight even briefly. Older, more significant contributions are easily neglected, as the premium is to write and publish, not read and learn. The result is a widespread cynicism among academics on the value of academic research, sometimes including their own. Publishing comes to be seen as a game of hits and misses, devoid of intrinsic meaning and value, and of no wider social uses whatsoever. Academics do research in order to get published, not to say something socially meaningful. This is what we view as the rise of nonsense in academic research, which represents a serious social problem. It undermines the very point of social science. This problem is far from 'academic'. It affects many areas of social and political life entailing extensive waste of resources and inflated student fees as well as costs to tax-payers. Part two of the book offers a range of proposals aimed at restoring meaning at the heart of social research and drawing social science back address the major problems and issues that face our societies.

General

Imprint:	Oxford UniversityPress
Country of origin:	United Kingdom
Release date:	July 2017
Authors:	Mats Alvesson (Professor) • Yiannis Gabriel (Professor of Organizational Theory) • Roland Paulsen (Assistant Professor)
Dimensions:	241 x 161 x 16mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover
Pages:	174
ISBN-13:	978-0-19-878709-9
Categories:	Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Communication studies > Research methods Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social research & statistics > General
LSN:	0-19-878709-X
Barcode:	9780198787099

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