May 20, 2006
DOUBLE, DOUBLE TOIL AND TROUBLE
Social sciences' serious image problem (Anne-Marie Owens, National Post, May 20th, 2006)
The social sciences are always seen as the flighty older sister of the academic family, eternally straining to be taken seriously for nailing down ethereal wisps of knowledge when their more serious siblings in the so-called hard sciences are gaining accolades for researching a cancer cure or genome theory.But when 8,000 PhDs from 80 scholarly associations across Canada get together to swap ideas about everything from the Bonoization of Democracy to the Significance of the Sock, there will be no time for such an inferiority complex.
Among the thousands of academic papers to be delivered during the week-long Congress, which begins a week from now at Toronto's York University, are titles about education, aboriginal rights, environmental ills, and warfare. There will be lectures from such academic luminaries as David Suzuki, Stephen Lewis and even the Ethics Commissioner, Bernard Shapiro.
But the annual brains-fest, otherwise known as the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, will also feature papers with titles such as "Cheese as Class Indicator in the Retail Market," "A Reflection of the Sock in Society," and "Opening, Closing and Revolving: Studies in Doorology."
Such titles are sure to elicit some guffaws and even calls of outrage about misguided government funding, but the people who ply their trade in this world are accustomed to this derision. "It is a constant struggle," concedes Donald Fisher, education professor at the University of British Columbia and president of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences. "There is that sense that this knowledge isn't as useful, it isn't as concrete, it doesn't contribute economically, it doesn't have that obvious benefit...."
"We've always suffered from that image. What sometimes seems arcane and particularistic and sometimes remote is, when you actually unpack it, very relevant."
Astrology and alchemy had to fight similar prejudices.
General rule of thumb: any discipline with the word "science" in its name, isn't.
Posted by: Gideon at May 20, 2006 3:18 PM"annual brains fest"??
More like 8,000 wasted lives.
Guffaw
Posted by: jdkelly at May 20, 2006 3:45 PMExcept Pastry Science, of course:
http://www.simpsoncrazy.com/downloads/track.php?dl=video/Intel.avi
Posted by: joe shropshire at May 20, 2006 3:53 PMjd - Give them their due. After getting a Ph.D. in Doorology, they know not to bump into doors. And if by chance the Doorologist marries the Cheesologist, one can buy lunch for the other.
Posted by: pj at May 20, 2006 3:54 PMWe need to start thinking about the service economy.
Technology and Mexicans, whom everybody seems prepared to import as slavbes and serfs, to all the real work, and the rest of us can play around with whatever makes us feel good.
We must understand that the alternative is mass superfluity. We need doorologists just because those people are better employed studying doors than either cutting grass, which others can do better than they, or overthrowing the system which supports all the rest of us.
Posted by: Lou Gots at May 20, 2006 4:04 PMpj, Admit you have a point. I should shut up, having wasted my life in law, not to mention in many other ways. Oh well......
Posted by: jdkelly at May 20, 2006 4:31 PMJoe, I believe pastry is an art form not a science.
Posted by: erp at May 20, 2006 5:22 PMNormal Person: "So what do you do?"
Academic: "I'm a professor."
Normal Person: "What do you teach?"
Academic: "I teach, uh, science."
Normal Person: "Really? What kind of science?"
Academic: "Uh...Social Science."
Normal Person: "Oh."
Academic:
Normal Person: "Hey; I saw Bernie Saunders talking about Global Warming on C-SPAN..."
Academic: "No; that's socialist science."
Normal Person: "Oh. Hey--I saw Tom Cruise jumping up and down on 'Oprah'..."
Academic: "No, no--he's a sofa Scientologist."
Normal Person: "Oh. Well, what kind of scientist are you exactly?"
Academic: "Does the phrase 'Bonoization' mean anything to you?"
Normal Person: "No."
Academic:
Normal person: "Can you introduce me to Tom Cruise?"
Academic: "No!"
Normal Person: "How 'bout Bono?"
Academic: "NO!"
Normal Person: "I'll bet you don't even know Bernie Saunders either, do you?"
Academic: "NO!!!!"
Normal Person: "A real scientist wouldn't yell."
My favorite cheese is Gruyere, but I usually just buy Mozzarella and/or Parmesan. What does that say about me?
Posted by: ratbert at May 22, 2006 9:07 AMratbert. Here are a several possible reasons (there are dozens more) why you don't buy Gruyere: 1. You are boycotting French products; 2. You are denying yourself this small pleasure to atone for some past sin of gluttony; 3. You live in the boonies where the selection of cheeses is limited, but like the independent minded upright citizen you are, you don't whine and complain, but make do with what's available and indulge your cravings when you're in a more upscale market where you load up on Gruyere hoping against hope it lasts you through the lean times between outings to more civilized parts of the land; 4. Your kids don't like Gruyere.
Posted by: erp at May 22, 2006 10:50 AMNoel, the only thing missing from your conversation is this line:
Academic: "Please refer to me as Doctor!"
Posted by: pchuck at May 22, 2006 11:19 AM