S E NT UE EDUARDO F EDUARDO Time for a makeover? Examining the state of the social sciences, Amanda Goodall and Andrew Oswald conclude that researchers in stagnant, silo-bound subjects do not address mankind’s most pressing issues and that the discipline needs a shake-up 34 Times Higher Education 9 October 2014 9 October 2014 Times Higher Education 35 brave, intriguing and fiery op-ed article his work with James Fowler of the University in fields such as sociology and economics. approximately 20,000 articles last year. This oxytocin or the nature of herd behaviour in appeared last year in The New York of California, San Diego, which has promul- So Christakis, who visits the UK later this implies that one new journal article on zebrafish. Yet students would be fascinated A Times. Written by Nicholas Christakis, gated the memorable idea that it is your month to present his research and debate his economics is published every 25 minutes – even by these and the many other findings of the it was highly critical of the way that modern friends who are making you fat (because they ideas on the state of social science, is an inter- on Christmas Day. This iceberg-like immensity natural sciences that could form a vital adjunct social science is done. The headline – “Let’s are fat too and you compare yourself to them esting man with an arresting CV. But does this of the modern social sciences means that it is to their knowledge of social scientific issues. Shake Up the Social Sciences” – captured its – not because they take you out to great make him right? We are inclined to believe going to be difficult to say anything coherent If you do not believe us, type these phrases spirit, and it spawned grumpy postings on restaurants). Christakis’ lectures are typically that, broadly, he is. and truly general across them. Nobody walk- into Google and see how much they matter in social science blogs across the world. characterised by complicated modelling of The first thing to have in mind, as back- ing the planet has read more than 1 per cent of modern social science research. Christakis’ unusually cross-disciplinary social networks and starkly beautiful graph- ground, is the astonishing size of the social their published output. Most of us have not It is possible that waiting alone may solve range of expertise makes him well-placed to ical representations of nodes and linkages. science literature. Few people appreciate this. read 0.1 per cent. Such facts should give all of the problem, that such topics will eventually judge. He is a medical doctor and a sociolo- Not many people in the world have his track The Thomson Reuters Web of Science data- us – whether or not we agree with Christakis find their way into undergraduate lectures gist, and currently heads the Human Nature record, which includes lots of articles in pres- base (which is by no means exhaustive of the – pause for modesty in our assertions. and that Christakis’ criticisms are just jumping Lab at Yale University, where he is Sol tigious scientific and medical journals such entire global academic output) lists more than But let us do our best to judge the state of the gun, and merely to be expected from Goldman Family professor of social and as Nature, Science and The New England 3,000 social science journals. The journals the social sciences. One place to begin is with a researcher who is impatient even with the natural science. He is famous particularly for Journal of Medicine, as well as publications classified as economics alone contained Christakis’ view on what he sees as the discip- frontier work currently being done in social S E lines’ conservatism. In his New York Times science. But it is hard to know. NT UE article, he says that in his working lifetime he has seen the traditional titles of science depart- hat principally matters is whether ments transmute into innovative neologisms social scientists are doing their job of EDUARDO F EDUARDO such as systems biology, neurobiology and W helping humans to understand the molecular biophysics. These changes, in his world and improve life. Our instinct is that opinion, have first reflected and then fostered too much of social science is focused on minor interdisciplinary ways of thinking – which are issues. An important recent contribution to the still missing from social science departments. assessment of the impact of the social sciences “The social sciences have stagnated,” on public policymaking, business, the third he says. “They offer essentially the same set sector and the economy was carried out by of academic departments and disciplines that Patrick Dunleavy and his colleagues in the they have for nearly 100 years: sociology, London School of Economics’ department of economics, anthropology, psychology and government, Simon Bastow and Jane Tinkler. political science. This is not only boring but In their 2014 book, The Impact of the Social also counterproductive, constraining engage- Sciences: How Academics and Their Research ment with the scientific cutting edge and Make a Difference, they argue against the stifling the creation of new and useful simple dichotomy of social versus physical knowledge.” sciences. Instead, they prefer to think in terms This is an interesting and sharp claim. He of three categories of disciplines: those is right, surely, about departmental nomen- concerned with, respectively, human- clature. A quick search of UK universities’ dominated systems, human-influenced systems websites shows that most have awfully tradi- and almost completely natural systems. They argue that the social sciences are increasingly important in the study of human-influenced What principally matters is whether It is not easy to understand why systems, such as the planet’s climate, and that social scientists are doing their job topics such as climate change would we need substantially greater interaction and integration between science and social science of helping humans to understand attract comparatively little interest subjects (“Use ‘impact agenda’ to prove value, the world and improve life from social scientists social sciences urged”, News, 9 January 2014). We agree, and so would Christakis. Climate change is an obvious social science concern, tional departmental structures. We do not where the difficulty for Planet Earth is that, know of any universities that have depart- as individuals, people will not alter their ments of neuroeconomics, sociobiology, virtual carbon-consuming ways. This is ultimately experimental politics or behavioural geography. a social problem. Yet is that a problem? Descriptors do not It is not easy to understand why topics such matter much in themselves. The truly serious as climate change would attract comparatively issue is whether immovable department names little interest from social scientists. Optimists are a worrying signal of immovability of will be able to point to some research on the thought. Sadly, we suspect that, in the UK at topic, such as that by social scientist Katrina least, they are. One of us did a social policy Brown from the University of Exeter, business degree in the 1990s and is conscious that it school professors Andrew Hoffman from the contained nothing about the natural sciences. University of Michigan and Ans Kolk at the And one of us did a bachelor’s degree in University of Amsterdam, and economists economics in the 1970s and is conscious that William Nordhaus from Yale University and undergraduate economics is not very different Richard Tol at the University of Sussex. But in its content today – despite some efforts to when weighed against the size of the problem change the curriculum following the financial for the human race, why does the UK, for crisis by economists such as Wendy Carlin example, have so few academics who do from University College London. research on climate change in its most famous UK social science undergraduates are, we departments of sociology, economics and polit- believe, given essentially no teaching about ical science? Their scarcity is chastening. modern brain science, the geophysics of There is worrying evidence that this letting climate change, the hormone cortisol, the down of humanity has as much to do with the biology of skin resistance, the genetic poly- selection habits of major social science jour- morph ism 5-HTTLPR, the life-cycle happiness nals as with researchers’ narrow horizons. As of great apes, the physiological effects of one of us has previously shown, bibliometric 36 Times Higher Education 9 October 2014 9 October 2014 Times Higher Education 37 data reveal that, prior to 2008, most of the in specialist journals, such as Energy Policy articles is their puzzling length. If journals of Economics, the average article length is elite social science journals in economics, busi- and Ecological Economics. Sad to say, these such as Nature and Science can insist that their 48 pages: more than double the average length ness studies, political science and sociology journals are often viewed as less prestigious, contributors keep it down to a few pages, of papers in the equivalent issue 40 years ago. eschewed articles on global warming. There so younger generations of social science schol- why on earth do social science journals allow At best, this is inefficient. All the detail of has been some improvement over the past few ars are subconsciously put off from working authors to rabbit on and on? The June 2014 life can now be put into online appendices, years, certainly in business and management on this vital topic. Contrast that with the hard issue of the American Sociological Review has allowing the articles themselves potentially to journals, but, as a stark example, the highest- sciences. The highest impact-factor journals, an article called “Changing work and work- be shorter than ever.