Compiling the best episodes of SAGE's 'Social Science Bites' podcast since its beginning in 2012, this pocket-sized volume is sure to inspire and provoke. With a foreword by David Edmonds, host of the podcast, this book will show you how social science can help to solve problems in today's society. It is structured into sections on identity, learning, human behaviour, social change, and the unexpected, with each chapter offering the perspective of one of the most dynamic thinkers in the social sciences. Taking a multidisciplinary approach, Edmonds' selection of interviews includes topics such as racial inequality, moral psychology, the pandemic, and the prison system. Interviewees include Sam Friedman, Professor of Sociology at LSE, Gurminder K. Bhambra, Professor of Postcolonial and Decolonial Studies at the University of Sussex, and Jennifer Richeson, Professor of Psychology at Yale University. This book will show you the range of voices in the social sciences today, and how this diversity is what is needed to grapple with the complexity of the issues we face.
David Edmonds is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at Oxford University and a former BBC radio journalist. He is the author or editor of many philosophy books (and one on chess) which together have been translated into over two dozen languages. These include (with John Eidinow), Wittgenstein's Poker and, most recently, a biography, Parfit: A Philosopher and his Mission to Save Morality. As well as Social Science Bites, David also hosts a couple of philosophy podcasts. Philosophy Bites, which he makes with Nigel Warburton, has had over 47 million downloads.
PART 1: IDENTITY Chapter 1: Sam Friedman on Class Chapter 2: Janet Carsten on the Kinship of Anthropology PART 2: HOW WE THINK AND LEARN Chapter 3: Daniel Kahneman on Bias Chapter 4: Mahzarin Banaji on Implicit Bias Chapter 5: Gurminder K. Bhambra on Postcolonial Social Science Chapter 6: Jonathan Haidt on Moral Psychology Chapter 7: Jo Boaler on Fear of Mathematics Chapter 8: Saskia Sassen on Before Method PART 3: HUMAN BEHAVIOUR Chapter 9: Stephen Reicher on Crowd Psychology Chapter 10: Robert Shiller on Behavioral Economics Chapter 11: David Halpern on Nudging Chapter 12: Valerie Curtis on the Sources of Disgust PART 4: MAKING SOCIAL CHANGE Chapter 13: Jennifer Richeson on Perceptions of Racial Inequality Chapter 14: Erica Chenoweth on Nonviolent Resistance Chapter 15: Alison Liebling on Successful Prisons Chapter 16: Lawrence Sherman on Experimental Criminology PART 5: EXPLAINING THE PRESENT AND THE UNEXPECTED Chapter 17: Hetan Shah on Social Science and the Pandemic Chapter 18: Bruce Hood on the Supernatural
The eclectic chapters in 'Understanding Humans: How Social Science Can Solve Our Problems' illuminate the profound role of social sciences in exploring and addressing social issues. This book serves as a valuable resource for a broad audience, being accessible and engaging for readers without prior knowledge or expertise in the fields drawn upon by the researchers. It provides readers with a compelling overview of exceptional research studies on how we think and act as individuals, and the social, economic, educational and political structures that we operate within. -- Ulviyya Khalilova * LSE Review of Books *
