Social Science for What?: Battles over Public Funding for the "Other Sciences" at the National Science Foundation (2020)
How the NSF became an important yet controversial patron for the social sciences, influencing debates over their scientific status and social relevance. In the early Cold War years, the U.S. government established the National Science Foundation (NSF), a civilian agency that soon became widely known for its dedication to supporting first-rate science. The agency's 1950 enabling legislation made no mention of the social sciences, although it included a vague reference to “other sciences.” Nevertheless, as Mark Solovey shows in this book, the NSF also soon became a major—albeit controversial—source of public funding for them.Solovey's analysis underscores the long-term impact of early developments, when the NSF embraced a “scientistic” strategy wherein the natural sciences represented the gold standard, and created a social science program limited to “hard-core” studies. Along the way, Solovey shows how the NSF's efforts to support scholarship, advanced training, and educational programs were shaped by landmark scientific and political developments, including McCarthyism, Sputnik, reform liberalism during the 1960s, and a newly energized conservative movement during the 1970s and 1980s. Finally, he assesses the NSF's relevance in a “post-truth” era, questions the legacy of its scientistic strategy, and calls for a separate social science agency—a National Social Science Foundation. Solovey's study of the battles over public funding is crucial for understanding the recent history of the social sciences as well as ongoing debates over their scientific status and social value.
...MoreReview Emily Hauptmann (2021) Review of "Social Science for What?: Battles over Public Funding for the "Other Sciences" at the National Science Foundation". Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences (pp. 220-222).
Review Jon Agar (2022) Review of "Social Science for What?: Battles over Public Funding for the "Other Sciences" at the National Science Foundation". Journal of American History (pp. 468-469).
Review George Reisch (2021) Review of "Social Science for What?: Battles over Public Funding for the "Other Sciences" at the National Science Foundation". Metascience: An International Review Journal for the History, Philosophy and Social Studies of Science (pp. 75-78).
Review Audra J. Wolfe (2022) Review of "Social Science for What?: Battles over Public Funding for the "Other Sciences" at the National Science Foundation". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 460-460).
Review Jialu Xie (2021) Review of "Social Science for What?: Battles over Public Funding for the "Other Sciences" at the National Science Foundation". Minerva: A Review of Science, Learning and Policy (pp. 285-288).
Review Dennis Bryson (2021) Review of "Social Science for What?: Battles over Public Funding for the "Other Sciences" at the National Science Foundation". Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 606-608).
Review Katherine Ambler (2021) Review of "Social Science for What?: Battles over Public Funding for the "Other Sciences" at the National Science Foundation". British Journal for the History of Science (pp. 113-114).
Similar Citations
Article
Mata, Tiago;
Scheiding, Tom;
(2012)
National Science Foundation Patronage of Social Science, 1970s and 1980s: Congressional Scrutiny, Advocacy Network, and the Prestige of Economics
(/isis/citation/CBB001211967/)
Book
Solovey, Mark;
(2013)
Shaky Foundations: The Politics--Patronage--Social Science Nexus in Cold War America
(/isis/citation/CBB001550276/)
Book
Naomi Oreskes;
(2021)
Science on a Mission: How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don’t Know about the Ocean
(/isis/citation/CBB027037258/)
Article
Rüdiger Graf;
(2017)
Détente Science? Transformations of Knowledge and Expertise in the 1970s
(/isis/citation/CBB433725700/)
Book
Solovey, Mark;
(2013)
Shaky Foundations: The Politics-Patronage-Social Science Nexus in Cold War America
(/isis/citation/CBB001420023/)
Book
Simone Turchetti;
(2019)
Greening the Alliance: The Diplomacy of Nato's Science and Environmental Initiatives
(/isis/citation/CBB126822619/)
Article
Emina Veletanlić;
Creso Sá;
(2020)
Implementing the Innovation Agenda: A Study of Change at a Research Funding Agency
(/isis/citation/CBB690561994/)
Article
Coleen Carrigan;
Saejin Kwak Tanguay;
Joyce Yen;
Julie Simmons Ivy;
Cara Margherio;
M. Claire Horner-Devine;
Eve A. Riskin;
Christine S. Grant;
(2023)
Negotiating boundaries: an intersectional collaboration to advance women academics in engineering
(/isis/citation/CBB975394998/)
Article
Solovey, Mark;
(2004)
Riding Natural Scientists' Coattails onto the Endless Frontier: The SSRC and the Quest for Scientific Legitimacy
(/isis/citation/CBB000671316/)
Thesis
Meshoulam, David;
(2014)
“Teaching Physics as One of the Humanities”: The History of (Harvard) Project Physics, 1961--1970
(/isis/citation/CBB001567569/)
Article
Fabrizio Li Vigni;
(2022)
Hayek at the Santa Fe Institute: Origins, Models, and Organization of the Cradle of Complexity Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB101266514/)
Book
Mark Solovey;
Christian Dayé;
(2021)
Cold War Social Science: Transnational Entanglements
(/isis/citation/CBB237888537/)
Chapter
Anna Larsson;
Per Wisselgren;
(2013)
Introduction: Contextualizing Social Science
(/isis/citation/CBB349332804/)
Article
Marta Entradas;
Martin M. Bauer;
(2016)
Mobilisation for Public Engagement: Benchmarking the Practices of Research Institutes
(/isis/citation/CBB478147771/)
Article
Philippe Fontaine;
(2016)
Walking the Tightrope: The Committee on the Behavioral Sciences and Academic Cultures at the University of Chicago, 1949–1955
(/isis/citation/CBB188601454/)
Chapter
Morris, Norma;
(2010)
Authority Relations as Condition for, and Outcome of, Shifts in Governance: The Limited Impact of the UK Research Assessment Exercise on the Biosciences
(/isis/citation/CBB001420862/)
Article
Birch, Kean;
(2013)
The Political Economy of Technoscience: An Emerging Research Agenda
(/isis/citation/CBB001320493/)
Article
Crowther-Heyck, Hunter;
(2006)
Patrons of the Revolution: Ideals and Institutions in Postwar Behavioral Science
(/isis/citation/CBB000671526/)
Article
Heyck, Hunter;
(2014)
The Organizational Revolution and the Human Sciences
(/isis/citation/CBB001321203/)
Article
Hudson, Wayne;
(2014)
Philosophy, Theology, and the Humanities
(/isis/citation/CBB001201206/)
Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences
Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences
Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology
Spontaneous Generations
Public Understanding of Science
Be the first to comment!