 "The study of
history,
geography,
civics,
sociology,
economics,
and other
social-science
subjects,
especially in primary and secondary
school."
Source:
Wikipedia
Social science is the
field of study
concerned with society and human behaviours. "Social science" is
commonly used as an
umbrella term
to refer to a plurality of fields outside of the
natural sciences.
These include:
anthropology,
archaeology,
criminology,
economics,
education,
linguistics,
political science and
international relations,
sociology,
geography,
history,
law,
and
psychology.
The term may
however be used in the specific context of referring to the
original science of
society established
in 19th century sociology (Latin:
socius,
"companion"; -ology,
"the study of", and
Greek
λόγος,
lógos,
"word", "knowledge").
Émile Durkheim,
Karl Marx
and
Max Weber
are typically cited as the principal architects of modern social
science by this definition.Positivist
social scientists use methods resembling those of the
natural sciences
as tools for understanding society, and so define science in its
stricter
modern sense.
Interpretivist
social scientists, by contrast, may use social critique or
symbolic interpretation rather than constructing empirically
falsifiable theories, and thus treat science in its broader
sense. In modern academic practice, researchers are often
eclectic,
using multiple
methodologies
(for instance, by combining the
quantitative
and
qualitative
techniques). The term
social research
has also acquired a degree of autonomy as practitioners from
various disciplines share in its aims and methods,"
Source:
Wikipedia |
