Schools of Thought: Twenty-Five Years of Interpretive Social Science

by Joan Wallach Scott (Editor), Debra Keates (Editor)

Overview

Schools of Thought brings together a cast of prominent scholars to assess, with unprecedented breadth and vigor, the intellectual revolution over the past quarter century in the social sciences. This collection of twenty essays stems from a 1997 conference that celebrated the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Institute for Advanced Study's School of Social Science. The authors, who represent a wide range of disciplines, are all associated with the School's emphasis on interpretive social science, which rejects models from the hard sciences and opts instead for a humanistic approach to social inquiry.


Following a preface by Clifford Geertz, whose profound insights have helped shape the School from the outset, the essays are arranged in four sections. The first offers personal reflections on disciplinary changes; the second features essays advocating changes in focus or methodology; the third presents field overviews and institutional history; while the fourth addresses the link between political philosophy and world governance. Two recurring themes are the uses (and pitfalls) of interdisciplinary studies and the relation between scholarship and social change. This book will be rewarding for anyone interested in how changing trends in scholarship shape the understanding of our social worlds.


The contributors include David Apter, Kaushik Basu, Judith Butler, Nicholas Dirks, Jean Elshtain, Peter Galison, Wolf Lepenies, Jane Mansbridge, Andrew Pickering, Mary Poovey, Istvan Rev, Renato Rosaldo, Michael Rustin, Joan W. Scott, William H. Sewell, Jr., Quentin Skinner, Charles Taylor, Anna Tsing, Michael Walzer, and Gavin Wright.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691088426
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	11/11/2001
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Joan W. Scott is Harold Lindner Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study. Her most recent book is Only Paradoxes to Offer: French Feminists and the Rights of Man. Debra Keates directs publications for the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study. She is coeditor of Transitions, Environments, Translations: Feminisms in International Politics.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	vii
	Introduction: School Building: A Retrospective Preface	1
Part 1	Blurred Genres: Reflections on Disciplinary Practices	13
Chapter 1	Political Theory after the Enlightenment Project	15
Chapter 2	Twenty-five Years of Social Science and Social Change: A Personal Memoir	25
Chapter 3	Economic History as a Cure for Economics	41
Chapter 4	Can the "Other" of Philosophy Speak?	52
Chapter 5	Reflections on Interdisciplinarity	67
Part 2	The State of the Art: New Methods and New Questions	83
Chapter 6	After History?	85
Chapter 7	The Global Situation	104
Chapter 8	Modernity and Identity	139
Chapter 9	The Role of Norms and Law in Economics: An Essay on Political Economy	154
Chapter 10	Material Culture, Theoretical Culture, and Delocalization	179
Chapter 11	Science as Alchemy	194
Part 3	Thick Description: Field Overviews and Institutional History	207
Chapter 12	Whatever Happened to the "Social" in Social History?	209
Chapter 13	Postcolonialism and Its Discontents: History, Anthropology, and Postcolonial Critique	227
Chapter 14	Structure, Contingency, and Choice: A Comparison of Trends and Tendencies in Political Science	252
Chapter 15	Interdisciplinarity at New York University	288
Part 4	The World in Pieces: Political Philosophy and World Governance	313
Chapter 16	Political Theory and Moral Responsibility	315
Chapter 17	A "Moral Core" Solution to the Prisoners' Dilemma	330
Chapter 18	Reinterpreting Risk	348
Chapter 19	Retrotopia: Critical Reason Turns Primitive	364
Chapter 20	International Society: What Is the Best that We Can Do?	388
	Author Notes	403

What People are Saying About This

Ortner

Schools of Thought is a tremendous contribution to scholarship in the broadest sense, or perhaps one should say, meta-scholarship. It is also loaded with rich, stimulating, and provocative essays by a roster of brilliant scholars. I can't think of anything quite like this book. It captures, in a many-faceted way, what has truly been a revolution in the social sciences in the past twenty-five years. It will be extremely widely read across the social sciences, and across many of the humanities as well.
— Sherry B. Ortner, Columbia University

From the Publisher

"Schools of Thought is a tremendous contribution to scholarship in the broadest sense, or perhaps one should say, meta-scholarship. It is also loaded with rich, stimulating, and provocative essays by a roster of brilliant scholars. I can't think of anything quite like this book. It captures, in a many-faceted way, what has truly been a revolution in the social sciences in the past twenty-five years. It will be extremely widely read across the social sciences, and across many of the humanities as well."—Sherry B. Ortner, Columbia University

Introduction

Clifford Geertz School Building: A Retrospective PrefacePART ONE: Blurred Genres: Reflections on Disciplinary Practices 13 CHAPTER 1: Quentin Skinner Political Theory after the Enlightenment Project 15 CHAPTER 2: Wolf Lepenies Twenty-five Years of Social Science and Social Change: A Personal Memoir 25 CHAPTER 3: Gavin Wright Economic History as a Cure for Economics 41 CHAPTER 4: Judith Butler Can the "Other" of Philosophy Speak? 52 CHAPTER 5: Renato Rosaldo Reflections on Interdisciplinarity 67 PART TWO: The State of the Art: New Methods and New Questions 83 CHAPTER 6: Joan W. Scott After History? 85 CHAPTER 7: Anna Tsing The Global Situation 104 CHAPTER 8: Charles Taylor Modernity and Identity 139 CHAPTER 9: Kaushik Basu The Role of Norms and Law in Economics: An Essay on Political Economy 154 CHAPTER 10: Peter Galison Material Culture, Theoretical Culture, and Delocalization 179 CHAPTER 11: Andrew Pickering Science as Alchemy 194 PART THREE: Thick Description: Field Overviews and Institutional History 207 CHAPTER 12: William H. Sewell, Jr. Whatever Happened to the "Social" in Social History? 209 CHAPTER 13: Nicholas B. Dirks Postcolonialism and Its Discontents: History, Anthropology, and Postcolonial Critique 227 CHAPTER 14: David E. Apter Structure, Contingency, and Choice: A Comparison of Trends and Tendencies in Political Science 252 CHAPTER 15: Mary Poovey Interdisciplinarity at New York University 288 PART FOUR: The World in Pieces: Political Philosophy and World Governance 313 CHAPTER 16: Jean Bethke Elshtain Political Theory and Moral Responsibility 315 CHAPTER 17: Jane Mansbridge A "Moral Core" Solution to the Prisoners' Dilemma 330 CHAPTER 18: Michael Rustin Reinterpreting Risk 348 CHAPTER 19: Istvan Rev Retrotopia: Critical Reason Turns Primitive 364 CHAPTER 20: Michael Walzer International Society: What Is the Best that We Can Do? 388 AUTHOR NOTES 403

Editorial Reviews

"Schools of Thought is a tremendous contribution to scholarship in the broadest sense, or perhaps one should say, meta-scholarship. It is also loaded with rich, stimulating, and provocative essays by a roster of brilliant scholars. I can't think of anything quite like this book. It captures, in a many-faceted way, what has truly been a revolution in the social sciences in the past twenty-five years. It will be extremely widely read across the social sciences, and across many of the humanities as well."—Sherry B. Ortner, Columbia University

From the Publisher