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Research Focus
Publications are expected to investigate methodological issues of interdisciplinary relevance.
We favour both contributions that discuss such issues at the theoretical level and papers that contain examples of this type of research in the form of specific case studies. Papers that combine these two aspects, such as a theoretical discussion with reference to research experiences/data or case studies containing a rich discussion of methodological premises and implications, will be most welcome.
We define interdisciplinary research as research that mixes theoretical approaches and methodologies traditionally pertaining to one (or more) specific discipline in order to investigate issues or case studies within another discipline. An example could be the use of discourse analysis (as developed in gender studies) in order to assess sociological models of the relation between individual and institution. Or reference to anthropological narratives as complementing the historical reconstruction of social uses of technology.
Social science methodology is here understood to encompass all analytic, theoretical, interpretive, instrumental and physical tools used for the acquisition of empirical data in research. Thus, contributors can draw upon quantitative issues (e.g. the choice of measurement indicators, the production and use of statistics, the relevance of quantitative data gathered by the natural sciences) and qualitative ones (including for instance the use of narrative and discourse analysis; the meaning, practice and value of objectivity in field work and interpretation; the role of the social scientist as subject of the investigation and bearer/creator of knowledge). Essays will also be welcomed regarding the interplay between knowledge production/ interpretation and methodology, the possibility of maintaining a distinction between normative and descriptive research and the (possibility/impossibility of) interaction between natural and social science methodologies.
GJSS is devoted to inclusion. We will therefore welcome papers mingling traditional social sciences (such as anthropology, sociology and economics) with disciplines such as gender studies, science and technology studies, history, law and political science. Reference to philosophical work on those disciplines is also valued. |
