Clashing Paradigms and Mathematics in the Social Sciences

Using in seeking has a long history. While its value for the natural sciences seems evident and has a taken-for granted nature, similar claims for the social sciences have been contentious. The link between knowledge and within social science is often viewed with sus picion, a reaction reinforced by the organiza tion of academia. University departments are frequently turf protection machines clashing over resources. In doing so, they attempt to mark and defend their boundaries in ways that are far less noble than the wolves in Yel lowstone. Yes, interdisciplinary programs and multidisciplinary research efforts exist, but reality shows valued resources flowing mainly to departments. Those souls hardy enough to live on boundaries between disciplines face both excitement and uncertainty for doing so. Neither fish nor fowl, their quests are sus pect to those staying safely within disciplinary boundaries. When one of the disciplines is mathematics, such problems are com pounded. I have lost track of how often the description mathematics and sociology gen erates arched eyebrows, furrowed brows, dropped jaws, and other expressions of sur prise and concern. Polite people say some thing like that's unusual while the impolite are, well, let's say, far less generous. One response for people living on bound aries between disciplines is to create new boundaries. For those interested in mathe matics, such boundaries define along with fragments of some other discipline as their domain. Journals catering to us include the Journal of Mathematical Biology, the Journal of Mathematical Chemistry, the Journal of Mathematical Economics, the Jour nal of Mathematical Geology, the Journal of Mathematical Psychology, and the Journal of Mathematical Sociology. There is even the Journal of Mathematical Physics! Covering a wider domain there is Mathematical Social Computational and Mathematical Modeling in the Social Sciences, by Scott de Marchi. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2005. 197pp. $65.00 cloth. ISBN: 0521853621

Mathematics education · Political science · Social science · Sociology · Business Strategy and Innovation · Complex Systems and Decision Making · Mathematics