Social science as apologia

Abstract

The social sciences are predominantly seen by their practitioners as critical endeavours, which should inform criticism of harmful institutions, beliefs and practices. Accordingly, political attacks on the social sciences are often interpreted as revealing an unwillingness to accept criticism and an acquiescence with the status quo. But this dominant view of the political implications of social scientific knowledge misses the fact that people can also be outraged by what they see as its apologetic potential, namely that it provides excuses or justifications for people doing bad things, preventing them from being rightfully blamed and punished. This introduction to the special issue sketches the long history of debates about the exculpatory and justificatory consequences of social science and lays the foundations for a theory of social scientific apologia by examining three main aspects: what social and cognitive processes motivate this type of accusation, how social theorists respond to it and whether different contexts of circulation of ideas affect how these controversies unfold.

Interdisciplinary research in hazards and disaster risk

“…Geography provides many tools for the reduction of disaster risk that may be employed by governments. However, even within scientific institutions and among scientists, for example, there can be diverse approaches to scientific research (Brandmayr 2021; Graham et al 2022; Yamada 2020). This can include different priorities, theories, methodologies, preferences and goals – again emergent from personal experiences combined with historical events, ideologies, educational opportunities or pathways and other factors.…”

No such thing as sociological excuses? Performativity, rationality and social scientific expertise in late liberalism

“…This assumption, which I refer to as the performativity of knowledge claims (Bacevic, 2019), underpins a variety of approaches to sociology and its role in the world, from the idea that sociology can transform the world, or fight injustice and oppression, to the idea that sociological narratives provide justifications for bad, unacceptable, or criminal behaviour. Recent examples of the latter include ‘It is time people engaged in looting and violence stopped hearing economic and social justifications’, stated by Boris Johnson in response to the London ‘Riots’ at the time when he was Mayor of London, and French Prime Minister Manuel Valls’ repeated denouncement of ‘social and sociological excuses’ in the wake of terrorist attacks in France (Brandmayr, 2021a, 2021b). Traces of this assumption, however, can also be identified in British and French governments’ current opposition to Critical Race Theory and the related critique of ‘postmodern’ (in the United Kingdom) or ‘foreign/American’ (in France) theories.…”

No (sociological) excuses for not going green: How do environmental activists make sense of social inequalities and relate to the working class?

“…Various replies arguing along the same lines 2 stressed that 'one always has a choice' and dismissed the hardship experienced by working-class people by stressing the commentators' own financial difficulties 3 or that middle-class environmentalists also faced police brutality. They refused the idea that being a member of the working-class or of a racialised group provides good reasons not to adopt their same practices to protect the planet and rejected sociological analysis as unduly exculpatory (see Brandmayr, 2021).…”