Social Sciences

The Social Sciences in a Global Age: Decoding Knowledge Politics by Dipankar Sinha, Oxon and New York: Routledge, 2022; pp xxiv + 173, `695.

The feminist methodology in research is explained by discussing the various strands of feminism and bringing out the distinction between method and methodology.

The article makes a case for the reinvention of the commons in the social sciences. The individual treatment of rights reduces the collective to a mass of persons. Instead the commons acknowledges the inviolate place of humans as part of the cosmos. The marginal and dissenting imagination must invoke the poetry of nature as it engages the current politics and economics. The commons, in its diversity, seeks wisdom through a dialogue of knowledges, moving beyond traditional “publics,” and “time.”

Social science textbooks are not and cannot be objective or unbiased. What is included and what is excluded in a textbook indicates the ideology and the aims of the textbooks, whether the aims are stated or unstated. The questions are: Which ideology? Which aims? Some excerpts from the present NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) textbooks indicate unstated aims of facilitating students' conformation and integration into the present social system. This is indicated by the use--and absence--of terms and concepts such as "capitalism" in these textbooks. Apparently the unstated aim is that if capitalism remains un-understood and unanalysed, it may not be questioned, and students will not realise that there is any alternative to capitalism. In the present circumstances, what can a textbook maker who stands on the left do?

A recent policy workshop on social sciences in India drew attention to the need to formulate a comprehensive social science policy - one that would not only create a holistic interdisciplinary paradigm for social science research, but also encourage research in regional languages and create a relevant database.