Posing Big Questions and Solving Big Problems in Social Science
April 2, 2010 (Steve Bradt)
Solving social science problems à la Hilbert
Camistry
A study of Agriculture, Science, Society and other Stuff of Life.
Posing Big Questions and Solving Big Problems in Social Science
April 2, 2010 (Steve Bradt)
City Mouse in Ag
A Catalogue Of 'Othering'
Writer, Researcher, Speaker
Quality Craftsmanship and Custom Cabinetry
helping science speak for itself
Thoughts from the intersection of science, pseudoscience, and conflict.
My views on Farming, Food and Life
Let's examine hard decisions!
The rantings of a food science PhD student. Proceed with caution. You might accidentally learn something.
A note to subscribers (both of you), the experts on this panel are all from the US (Harvard mostly) with a couple of token Oxford blokes. I wonder where the ROW representation is on this panel? How will this impact discussions and the identification of problems? Can a panel structured in this manner be effective in identifying the world’s most important or key social science problems? What do you think?
Americans view the world through the prism of American ideology. The four pillars of the American way are individualism, optimism, a strong dislike of government with a bias towards the market and a propensity for risk taking. With the possible exception of some Canadians and Australians the rest of the world views individualism as a disease, has a negative view of the past, present and future (think of life in Africa, Asia, Russia and Latin America), enjoy the benefits of any governemnt backed entitlement program (healthcare, water, etc.) and have suffered too many famines and war for any risk taking behaviour.So, to answer the question of “does this impact the discussions and the identification of problems?” Yes, if Americans and aliens (this is actually in the US Constitution, non-Americans are technically aliens) actually agree on a problem, a big if, then the proposed solutions are usually diametrically opposed. Individual responsiblity vs. group benefits, optimism vs. doom and gloom, market solutions vs. government programs and the ability to risk everything for nothing vs. the inability to fathom risk.Genrally, if a process, program or product works for Americans it generally will not work for the rest of the world.To quote Nye Jr., ” if American are the greatest communicators of history, how come they can only communicate with other Americans and not the rest of the world”. To quote Churchill, ” Americans are just different, get used to it”.Now we know why.
Thanks Bill for your insights! You truly have a unique perspective on the US/Canada and/or US/ROW dynamic. Oh, and I can’t express how much I love it when someone posts a comment to a posting on my blog – and it isn’t me!