Browsing by Subject "Social science"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    From Teaching Democratic Thinking to Developing Democratic Civic Identity
    (Partnerships: A Journal of Service-Learning and Civic Engagement, 2015) Bringle, Robert G.; Clayton, Patti H.; Bringle, Kathryn E.
    Using theory and research from the cognitive and social sciences as well as the literature of service-learning and community-campus engagement, we critically examine an over-emphasis on democratic thinking as the primary construct of interest in American higher education’s efforts to prepare young people for meaningful participation in democracy. We propose developing democratic civic identity as a more appropriate superordinate goal than teaching democratic thinking. We examine relationships between and among cognition, behavior, and attitudes generally and within the context of democratically-engaged community-campus partnerships and democratic critical reflection as a basis for developing and refining persons as civic agents in a diverse democracy. We conclude with implications of the analysis for service-learning—a pedagogy that, when designed and implemented accordingly, provides a uniquely powerful means to cultivate democratic civic identity.
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    Integrating social science into conservation planning
    (Elsevier, 2021) Niemiec, Rebecca M.; Gruby, Rebecca; Quartuch, Michael; Cavaliere, Christina T.; Teel, Tara L.; Crooks, Kevin; Salerno, Jonathan; Solomon, Jennifer N.; Jones, Kelly W.; Gavin, Michael; Lavoie, Anna; Stronza, Amanda; Meth, Leah; Enrici, Ash; Lanter, Katie; Browne, Christine; Proctor, Jonathan; Manfredo, Michael; Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
    A growing body of literature has highlighted the value of social science for conservation, yet the diverse approaches of the social sciences are still inconsistently incorporated in conservation initiatives. Building greater capacity for social science integration in conservation requires frameworks and case studies that provide concrete guidance and specific examples. To address this need, we have developed a framework aimed at expanding the role for social science in formal conservation planning processes. Our framework illustrates multiple ways in which social science research can contribute to four stages of such processes: 1) defining the problem and project team; 2) defining goals; 3) identifying impact pathways and designing interventions; and 4) developing and evaluating indicators of success (or failure). We then present a timely case study of wolf reintroduction in Colorado, U.S.A., to demonstrate the opportunities, challenges, and complexities of applying our framework in practice.
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    The Rhetoric of Philanthropy: Scientific Charity as Moral Language
    (2015-05) Klopp, Richard Lee; Gunderman, Richard B.
    To take at face value the current enthusiasm at the idea of marshaling science to end human social ills such as global poverty, one could easily overlook the fact that one hundred fifty years prior people were making strikingly similar claims as part of a broad movement often referred to as “scientific charity” or “scientific philanthropy”. The goal of this dissertation is to contribute to our knowledge of the scientific charity movement, through a retrieval of the morally weighted language used by reformers and social scientists to justify the changes they proposed for both public and private provision of poor relief, as found in the Proceedings of the Annual Assembly of the National Conference of Charities and Corrections (NCCC). In essence I am claiming that our understanding of the scientific charity movement is incomplete, and can be improved by an approach that looks at scientific charity as a species of moral language that provided ways to energize the many disparate and seemingly disconnected or even contradictory movements found during the period under study. The changes enacted to late 19th century philanthropic and charitable structures did not occur due to advances in a morally neutral and thus superior science, but were born along by a broad scale use of the language of scientific charity: an equally moral yet competing and eventually more compelling vision of a philanthropic future which held the keys to unlock the mysteries of poverty and solve it once and for all. When viewing scientific charity as something broader than any particular instantiation of it, when pursing it as a set of languages used to promote social science’s role in solving human problems by discrediting prior nonscientific attempts, one can begin to see that the reformist energies of late 19th century social thinkers did not dissipate, but crystalized into the set of background assumptions still present today.