What is it about?
Social sciences are undervalued and underused due to limitations of current models for the production and use of knowledge about society. By recognizing institutions as experiments and social models (Dynamic Social Theories), scholars could benefit society more and increase their impact. People are more likely to follow the example of successful models, so researchers should focus on finding and improving models of practice. Improving models of higher education as centres for social research and development could dramatically increase the impact, status and funding for social research.
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Why is it important?
The world's most difficult and urgent problems are social and political, yet we invest relatively little in social research compared with the natural sciences and findings from social research are often not used to improve social conditions. Social scientists can increase their impact by studying and sharing lessons of successful models for solving social problems and working with citizens, practitioners and policy-makers to embed social research methods into everyday practice and bring about steady improvements in social conditions, just as the natural sciences helped to improved health and materials conditions.
Perspectives
This draws on over 40 years experiences of working with local, national and international policymakers, politicians and practitioners on issues as diverse as parenting education and support, community development, climate change, global governance, political education, democratic innovation and animal welfare. I have worked for grassroots community organisations and nonprofits, and as a senior community education officer and accredited schools inspector in the UK, as well as on several global campaigns. In all these areas there is a gulf between research evidence of what could improve conditions for people and current practice. Although many academic social scientists do useful research, most of it is wasted because it is not connected with practice. By treating all institutions as everyday experiments and recognising social models as the equivalent of theories in the natural sciences, social researchers could help people solve social problems better.
Titus Alexander
Democracy Matters
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Social models as dynamic theories: how to improve the impact of social and political sciences, Frontiers in Political Science, May 2025, Frontiers,
DOI: 10.3389/fpos.2024.1443388.
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