Structural Change of Knowledge and the Future of the Social Sciences

This book is a compendium of pragmatism in the social sciences. While addressing several distinct spheres, it carries a common message: the future of the social sciences depends on a shared understanding of society based on the knowledge of various disciplines and transcending the currently forbidding borders between scientific knowledge and the other forms of knowledge. Looking back at the social science traditions this is nothing new. To ensure a fruitful future for the social sciences a paradigm shift is unavoidable. The consequence of the increase of knowledge in the last two centuries was the specialization of the sciences. The nineteenth century saw the separation of humanities and social sciences; the twentieth century is even characterized by specialization within the disciplines and the occurrence of competing schools of thought. This book tries to overcome the barriers that are built between and within the disciplines, and to counteract the unnecessary barriers created by the emergence of "schools of thoughts" that distrust each other and the social sciences as a whole.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research.

Ronald Pohoryles is Research Director of the ICCR and President of the European Association of the Advancement of the Social Sciences. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research. He is also Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Political Science at the University of Vienna, Austria, where he teaches classical liberal scholars.

Andrew Sors is Head of Science and Technology for the European Commission’s Delegation to India. He was previously Head of Social Sciences and Humanities Research at the European Commission. He has been a visiting professor at Manchester University, UK, and spent three years as Rector of the Collegium Budapest Institute for Advanced Study, Hungary.