Tag Archives: social sciences

Statisticism: the erroneous notion that computing is doing research

Posted on June 5, 2016 by

Notes on Social Measurement: Historical and Critical is a major and insightful book by a distinguished American sociologist Otis Dudley Duncan (1921-2004) published in 1984. Duncan has introduced many statistical techniques to sociology, and studied mainly intergenerational occupational mobility. In a paper “Otis Dudley Duncan, quantitative sociologist … Continue reading →

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Orthodoxy and Monoeconomics

Posted on May 24, 2016 by

“The principal enemy is orthodoxy: to use the same recipe, administer the same therapy, to resolve the most various types of problems; never to admit complexity and try to reduce it as much as possible, while ignoring that things are … Continue reading →

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Albert Einstein on the power of ideas and imagination in science

Posted on January 8, 2016 by

What do economic sociology and political economy, or social and political sciences in general, have to do with Albert Einstein?.. you might probably ask. Well, they do — and hopefully at the end of this post you will agree with me. I … Continue reading →

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The audacity of science

Posted on September 27, 2015 by

These days, as the new academic year begins, please allow me to wish you not to be deterred from inadequacy in your intellectual (or professional) journey; let inadequacy, accompanied by audacity, lead you forward. Oleg Komlik. “Science is inadequate, but … Continue reading →

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Don’t mess with political scientists! Not to mention political economists!! ;-)

Posted on April 23, 2015 by

🙂 This is an actual problem from physics textbook: Halliday, David, Robert Resnick and Jearl Walker. 2010. Fundamentals of Physics (Ninth Edition). Wiley (p. 84)

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“Falsified statistics”, membership celebration, thanks and an important reminder

Posted on March 15, 2015 by

“The only statistics you can trust are those you falsified yourself” famously said Winston Churchill. I am glad to share with you today that according to our statistics the global academic community of Economic Sociology and Political Economy reached 30,000 members … Continue reading →

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What is academic freedom?

Posted on March 4, 2015 by

“The most important aspect of freedom of speech is freedom to learn. All education is a continuous dialogue — questions and answers that pursue every problem on the horizon. That is the essence of academic freedom, of all scientific inquiry.“ … Continue reading →

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Who is an economist? Here is Keynes’ answer

Posted on March 1, 2015 by

In 1924 John Maynard Keynes wrote an obituary essay for a prominent economist Alfred Marshall, one of the founders of the English neoclassical economics and Keynes’ former tutor and academic patron. In this fascinating piece of work Keynes astoundingly mulls over Marshall’s scholarship and intellectual life. Joseph Schumpeter, in his eulogy of … Continue reading →

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International Political Economy scholars miss THE question of the 21st century: the rise of a global labor class living in poverty

Posted on January 9, 2015 by

In the recent years, more and more International Political Economy (IPE) scholars are dissatisfied with the current state of this field of research and desire to identify the ‘Big Questions’ of the 21st century. In this (open access) article, Benjamin … Continue reading →

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Ulrich Beck has died. His powerful concept of ‘Risk Society’ is relevant as never before

Posted on January 4, 2015 by

Renowned sociologist and social thinker Ulrich Beck has died. Ulrich Beck (Munich University and LSE) has become one of the world’s most famous intellectuals and most quoted social scientists in recent decades. Beck’s book Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity (1986/1992) is … Continue reading →

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“People are living books. The real library of life is community.” Thank you all!

Posted on December 31, 2014 by

While 2014 is coming to an end and 2015 is knocking on our doors, I want to thank every one of you for being here and for making this community what it really is. Thank you for joining, for every … Continue reading →

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Theodor Adorno on philosophy‬, academia, and market

Posted on December 15, 2014 by

 Theodor Adorno: “Out of piety, laziness, and calculation, ‪‎philosophy continues to muddle through in an ever narrower academic framework, and even there, it is increasingly being replaced with organized tautology. Whoever entrusts themselves to credentialed profundity, fall victim just as a … Continue reading →

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Science is at your feet: Political Science and Sociology’s Most Cited Papers from Each Decade since the 1950s

Posted on December 1, 2014 by

Using the Web of Science database, Jim Moody (Sociology, Duke University) and Charles Breton (Political Science, University of British Columbia) took the most-cited papers in their respective disciplines, and produced a Top 10 list for each decade going back to … Continue reading →

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‪‎Economists‬ admit: “‪‎Humans‬ are fundamentally a social species with interaction patterns that shape their behaviors”. ‪Eureka‬!!

Posted on November 24, 2014 by

Economists‬ admit: “‪Humans‬ are fundamentally a social species with interaction patterns that shape their behaviors.” What has caused this startling discovery?! A genuine ambition “to build better models”! First of all, I would like to applaud, seriously, The Journal of … Continue reading →

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Zygmunt Bauman: “Sociologizing makes sense only in as far as it helps humanity.”

Posted on November 14, 2014 by

Zygmunt Bauman: “…Sociologizing makes sense only in as far as it helps humanity.” in: Beilharz, Peter. 2001. The Bauman Reader. Oxford: Blackwell. (p. 335)

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