Social Science Bites: Recent Episodes
Social Science Bites
A tasty podcast series hosted by the Social Science Space website (http://www.socialsciencespace.com/) . Every month David Edmonds -- part of the team behind the enormously successful Philosophy Bites podcasts -- talks in depth with a leading social scientist about the academic's groundbreaking research.
Is it just a low wage that conjures up the term when we talk about “crushing poverty”? Or is it really a host of other issues that likely accompany that lack of money? Economist Sabina Alkire has spent her career crafting the measures that demonstrate that latter proposition, work that with fellow economist James Foster resulted in what is known as the Alkire-Foster Method for determining level of poverty. In this Social Science Bites podcast, Alkire – director of the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative -- explains to interviewer Dave Edmonds the need to have a consistent and reputable means of measuring poverty over time.
The post Sabina Alkire on Measuring Poverty appeared first on Social Science Space.
Philosopher Tom Chatfield’s media presence – which is substantial – is often directly linked to his writings on technology. But his new book is on critical thinking, and while that involves humanity’s oldest computer, the brain, Chatfield explains in this Social Science Bites podcast that new digital realities interact with old human biases.
The post Tom Chatfield on Critical Thinking and Bias appeared first on Social Science Space.
Amid all the handwringing about kids and the damage smartphones are doing them, child psychologist Ioanna Palaiologou is upbeat. “I don’t think,” she says, “we should worry as much as the media is making it. … If the elements are there, it’s another toy for them.” Palaiologou, an associate at the Institute of Education, University College […]
The post Ioanna Palaiologou on Play appeared first on Social Science Space.
In this Social Science Bites podcast, Nobel laureate economist Al Roth explains to interview David Edmonds some of the ins and outs of market matching, giving a wealth of real-world examples.
The post Al Roth on Matching Markets appeared first on Social Science Space.
In this Social Science Bites podcast, the director of Studies for Psychological and Behavioural Sciences at Cambridge’s Christ’s College discusses how environment – and that includes the cultural, built and financial environments --buttresses short term pleasures over long term benefits to the detriment of public health.
The post Theresa Marteau on Healthy Environments appeared first on Social Science Space.
Border criminology, Mary Bosworth details in this Social Science Bites podcast, is trying to understand both things that are happening at the border but also things that are happening n our criminal justice system.
The post Mary Bosworth on Border Criminology appeared first on Social Science Space.
Ask a number of influential social scientists who in turn influenced them, and you’d likely get a blue-ribbon primer on the classics in social science. And so it as we present the third and final series of answers to that question drawn from the first 50 guests on the Social Science Bites podcast series.
The post Whose Work Most Influenced You? A Social Science Bites Retrospective, Part 3 appeared first on Social Science Space.
What is an “organization?” According to Chris Grey, the guest in this Social Science Bites podcast, in many ways it’s a moment in time. “An organization,” he tells interviewer David Edmonds, “is also a momentary crystallization of an ongoing process of organizing.”
The post Chris Grey on Organizations appeared first on Social Science Space.
In this Social Science Bites podcast, anthropologist Scott Atran describes how 'sacred values' prove remarkably immune to negotiation and can empower vicious terrorism or victorious revolution.
The post Scott Atran on Sacred Values appeared first on Social Science Space.
During the recording of every Social Science Bites podcast, the guest has been asked the following: Which piece of social science research has most inspired or most influenced you? And now, in honor of the 50th Bites podcast to air, journalist and interviewer David Edmonds has compiled those responses into three separate montages. The second appears here, with answers – presented alphabetically – from Bites’ guests ranging from Sarah Franklin to Angela MacRobbie.
The post Whose Work Most Influenced You? A Social Science Bites Retrospective, Part 2 appeared first on Social Science Space.
When looking at big data, says computational social scientist Gary King, “The data itself isn’t likely to be particularly useful; the question is whether you can make it useful.” In this Social Science Bites podcast, he explains more about the importance of data analysis.
The post Gary King on Big Data Analysis appeared first on Social Science Space.
In this first of three of montages from past Social Science Bites podcasts, 15 renowned social scientists reveal their pick for "Which piece of social science research has most inspired or most influenced you?"
The post Whose Work Most Influenced You? A Social Science Bites Retrospective appeared first on Social Science Space.
People tend to herd together, whether it's following the crowd or determining what news to accept. UCL economist Michelle Baddeley has studied this behavior and discusses what she's learned in this latest Social Science Bites podcast.
The post Michelle Baddeley on the Herd appeared first on Social Science Space.
In this Social Science Bites podcast, MIT's Sandy Pentland tells interviewer Dave Edmonds about the origins of social physics in the barren days before the advent of widespread good data and solid statistical methods and how it blossomed as both a field and for Pentland’s own research.
The post Sandy Pentland on Social Physics appeared first on Social Science Space.
In this Social Science Bites podcast, Harvard's Jennifer Hochschild explains to interviewer David Edmonds some of the pertinent data points from her years of using quantitative and qualitative analysis to map the racial, ethnic and class cleavages in America’s demography.
The post Jennifer Hochschild on Race in America appeared first on Social Science Space.
Anna Machin's research combine the study of neurochemistry, dating sites and waist-to-hip ratios to gives us the best understanding of the evolution of love and romance. In this Social science Bites podcast she details her research interests and findings.
The post Anna Machin on Romance appeared first on Social Science Space.
Sociologist has studied the dance club scene -- think of the lamented Fabric nightclub as a cultural touchstone -- for years as a 'participant observer.' In this Social Science Bites podcast she talks about the scene's obvious drug use and the mechanics of doing ethnography at a rave.
The post Karenza Moore on Dance Culture appeared first on Social Science Space.
In his conversation with interviewer David Edmonds, Michael Billing -- the author of landmark book 'Banal Nationalism,' dives deeply into one particular example of nationalism, the British royal family, and what the British themselves think about the royal family and the place of the royals in British ideology
It's often remarked that technology has made the world a smaller place. While this has been especially true for those with the wherewithal to buy the latest gadget and to travel at will, but it's also true for economic migrants. Those technological ties are one of the key research interests of Mirca Madianou who discusses her work on transnational families and social media in the latest Social Science Bites podcast.
It's often remarked that technology has made the world a smaller place. While this has been especially true for those with the wherewithal to buy the latest gadget and to travel at will, but it's also true for economic migrants. Those technological ties are one of the key research interests of Mirca Madianou who discusses her work on transnational families and social media in the latest Social Science Bites podcast.
"As a behavioral scientist," Iris Bohnet tells David Edmonds in this Social Science Bites podcast looking at implicit bias, "I strongly believe that we now do have the insights and the tools to help us promote behavior change, not by changing mindsets but changing organizations."
"As a behavioral scientist," Iris Bohnet tells David Edmonds in this Social Science Bites podcast looking at implicit bias, "I strongly believe that we now do have the insights and the tools to help us promote behavior change, not by changing mindsets but changing organizations."
Michael Burawoy is a practitioner of what we might call 'extreme ethnography.' In this Social Science Bites podcast, Burawoy tells interviewer Dave Edmonds about his various experiences on factory floors, and some of the specific lessons he learned and the broader points -- often unexpected -- that emerged from the synthesis of his experiences.
Michael Burawoy is a practitioner of what we might call 'extreme ethnography.' In this Social Science Bites podcast, Burawoy tells interviewer Dave Edmonds about his various experiences on factory floors, and some of the specific lessons he learned and the broader points -- often unexpected -- that emerged from the synthesis of his experiences.
“In a sense, you could summarize the literature: ‘Groups are bad for you, groups take moral individuals and they turn them into immoral idiots.’ I have been trying to contest that notion,” social psychologist Stephen Reicher says in this Social Science Bites podcast, “[and] also to explain how that notion comes about.”
“In a sense, you could summarize the literature: ‘Groups are bad for you, groups take moral individuals and they turn them into immoral idiots.’ I have been trying to contest that notion,” social psychologist Stephen Reicher says in this Social Science Bites podcast, “[and] also to explain how that notion comes about.”
One of the leading exponents of what might be called the second coming of kinship studies, Janet Carsten, a professor of social and cultural anthropology at the University of Edinburgh, has (literally) brought new blood into the field, exploring kinship’s nexus with politics, work and gender.
In this Social Science Bites podcast, Ted Cantle (of the post-2001 riot report that bears his name) explains how the concept of 'parallel lives' continues to exert a malign influence wherever communities find themselves segregated -- even when they may live cheek-and-jowl.
'I think that happiness is better than a lot of what the ‘happiness industry’ represents it as,' Goldsmiths sociologist Will Davies tells interviewer David Edmonds in this Social Science Bites podcast.
Social psychologist Sheldon Solomon routinely thinks about the unthinkable, studying how humans behave differently when the unthinkable forces its way into their thoughts. In this Social Science Bites podcast, he explains how the fear of death actually propels humankind forward.
In this Social Science Bites podcast, social theorist Steven Lukes tells interviewer Nigel Warburton how Émile Durkheim's exploration of issues like labor, suicide and religion proved intriguing to a young academic and enduring for an established one.
C. Wright Mills was one of the most important sociologists of the 20th century. He believed that sociology could change people’s lives, and that sociologists, far from being neutral, should help bring about such change, and his ideas would fuel ‘60s counter-culture. In this Social Science Bites podcast, John Brewer reveals the full man behind the icon.
Erving Goffman has been called the most influential American sociologist of the 20th century thanks to his study and writing centered on the social interactions of everyday life. In this Social Science Bites podcast, social psychologist Peter Lunt discusses his own inquiries into Goffman's corpus, especially how Goffman approached many of his subjects with "an ethnographer's eye."
Max Weber is still recognized as a father of modern social science, but his work, developed in pre-World War I Germany, sometimes suffers in translation to the modern day. In the latest Social Science Bites podcast, his pre-eminent modern interpreter explains how Weber remains relevant today.
In this episode of the Social Science Bites podcast series, political scientist Ivor Crewe, the current president of Britain's Academy of Social sciences and the master of Oxford's University College, discusses the modern art, and sometime science, of election polling.
Around the world, populations are growing older. But is that because people are living longer? Or could it be that there are fewer younger people to dilute the demographic pool? And what about aging itself -- when exactly is 'old' these days?
As the World Cup kicks off, sportswriter and sociologist David Goldblatt discusses his unique academic vantage point of the beautiful game in the latest Social Science Bites podcast.
Remember the amazing, spoon-bending Uri Geller? Bruce Hood does. And while Geller is, to be kind, controversial, Hood is a quite recognized and reputable developmental psychologist at Bristol University. But he does share one trait with the self-described mystic who fascinated him as a boy — an interest in the supernatural and how individuals process [...]
What's in a name? According to economist Gregory Clark, a lot of divine-able information about your family's past and perhaps a fair bit about your children's future. In the latest edition of Social Science Bites, David Edmonds talks with Clark about his at-times controversial examination of surnames and their nexus with social mobility.
In the latest edition of Social Science Bites, American sociologist Craig Calhoun discussed the formation of protest movement and the role of social science in addressing and understanding these outputs of social change.
In the latest edition of Social Science Bites, Brazilian philosopher and politician Roberto Mangabeira Unger discusses what is wrong with the social sciences today, arguing that they have degenerated into a pseudo-‐science.
Angus Deaton is a social scientist and the author of The Great Escape: Health, Wealth and the Origins of Inequality. His Princeton colleague, the philosopher Peter Singer, argues that aid is vital to combat the terrible mortality rates in some countries. Angus Deaton disagrees..