social science experts

social science experts

The Impact of Social Science Experts on Society

1. Introduction to Social Science Experts

The impact of social science experts in society

Expertise in social science is created by expert individuals and organizations interacting with each other and with a wide range of other participants. It creates knowledge which is both the enduring foundation for sustainability and equity in modern societies and a set of current defensible best understandings about current opportunities and challenges. It provides options and strategies for actions now. Expert interactions create understanding and exercise influence through a six-stage process of knowledge creation, building trust in knowledge products, knowledge transmission, the different ways of exercise of voice in discussion and decision, and then decisions based on pulling together what has been heard.

The concept of expertise is inherently a contestable one. Experts’ interactions with others create their legitimacy and influence, however measured. There is, however, a special case of expert organizations whose members are professionals; social scientists and those concerned with the social aspects of the sciences themselves. These organizations directly and actively produce understanding and use it to advise clients in favor of particular possible courses of action in many settings. They act as consultants; as part-time and value-laden actors, pursuing particular understandings, eschewing others which are not valuable in the pursuit of their goals as legitimate experts. They also have strong interests in legal institutions. Their main claim to expert status lies in possessing what many others cannot access; within their disciplines and areas of prior inquiry, they overwhelmingly possess understanding which is current and defensible, that is rational and of high quality for the uses to which many kinds of understanding are placed by society at large and especially by the lawmakers.

2. The Role of Social Science Experts in Policy Making

Most people find politics dull, frustrating, and/or boring, particularly if politicians talk about specialized knowledge. When policy decisions involve specialized, non-bureaucratic knowledge (other than bundled knowledge, such as experience or wisdom), social scientists might well be able to help politicians and others to think about problems, whether or not policymakers accept their advice. Different types of expertise may be important in different policy contexts and at different times in the policy process, but social scientists’ role is to help policymakers address current and future problems, think clearly, and improve people’s well-being. Thus, social science experts are qualified to perform a public service by providing valuable specialized knowledge to policymakers. If they do not perform that role, problems will develop and deepen in the political system.

I divide the general system of “social science experts” into three categories: raw science experts (hereafter, “scientists”), trained citizens who interpret the inchoate implications of science applied to policy issues (hereafter, “ombudsmen”), and scientists who are also involved professionally or as interested citizens in social, economic, and political developments (hereafter, “scientist-citizens”). Scientists and ombudsmen deal mainly with theories developed in the social science community, while scientist-citizens are informed by the social science community about social, economic, and political developments.

3. Ethical Considerations in Social Science Research and Expertise

The first ethical responsibility of social science experts is toward their subjects, or the people their research interacts with. At the most basic level, researchers must respect the dignity and autonomy of their subjects by treating them as individuals and obtaining informed consent for research participation. This means that researchers must be truthful about what participation requires, the risks and benefits of participation, and incorporate insights from the culture and customs of their subjects into any consent process. At the same time, social scientists have a responsibility to respect the confidentiality of their subjects. Ancillary to the responsibility to subjects, social scientists should aim to publish findings in the public sphere. While there are both positive and negative implications of this, ultimately societal benefits are enhanced if scholarly knowledge benefits a particular society.

The second responsibility of the researchers to consider is their obligations to the broader research community. The discipline of scientific research means that all social science communities will benefit if all researchers document the study’s protocol and disseminate their data and findings. Knowledge grows as multiple individuals impose and test their ideas, measurements, and research protocols. To the extent that this is possible, social science knowledge will grow better if we (all researchers) apply consistent conceptual measures and standards that follow the scientific method. Before they engage with their subjects and after the results are disseminated, scientists should publicly admit their research findings. If the results were collected with federal funding, then the data from federally funded projects should be shared on public sites.

The third ethical responsibility of social science expertise is their duties to sponsors or stakeholders who pay for or contribute to their science. In terms of the Federal Register addressing the conflicts of interest that the research team faces, in contrast to addressing the conflicts of interest that entities with interests in the findings may have, a larger sample indicates that non-profit participants in their survey perceive significantly higher financial conflicts than any other. Contributors of research such as stakeholders should describe the returns on this investment, and have these returns discussed within the academic community.

4. Challenges and Opportunities for Social Science Experts in the Digital Age

In the 21st century, social science experts benefit from many assets: a vast knowledge about human societies and the world in which they are located, sophisticated tools, methods, and structures of research, and strong theoretical proposals for how to pursue their inquiry. They also face a serious challenge in Western societies from political organizations that seek to discredit their findings and expertise. What makes social science experts vulnerable to this kind of attack? And what strategies should they adopt to ward it off? Much social science work is supported by taxpayers and intended to inform public policies. Effective interaction between experts and citizens is a formal response to this challenge. However, in times of incessant questioning of experts and of unprecedented efforts to discredit what they say, their role and attitude in society deserves revisiting.

In principle, the impact of trust in experts and in their knowledge matters greatly. There are several reasons to expect some social science expertise and some experts to be challenged today. Some underlie economic and political forces that affect citizens’ attitudes to experts’ knowledge, professionalism, organizational anchorage, and ethical behavior. One cluster of these factors is related to the digital age and to the rapid social and technological changes it triggers. This machine age triggers ideas and norms that challenge expert knowledge. What is the impact of experts in terms of why and when people trust them? What special constraints and opportunities face social science experts such as sociologists, political scientists, and economists?

5. Conclusion: The Future of Social Science Expertise

The history of the American social science expert is diverse, possessing various origins and trajectories. It is clear, however, that the influence of the social science expert has greatly increased since the second half of the 20th century. Social science experts in the fields outlined here have earned a new era of social science experts and society. Not only have the numbers of practitioners and students increased, so too has the often concomitant influence on public opinion and public policy affective capacity. The commercialized education of professional credentials in fields most closely related to the applied social science expert enhances the impacts of the practitioners and their expertise.

Regardless of the challenges that lie ahead in the new era, it is also clear that society will continue to need social scientific expertise. Its capacity to affect people and their future in numerous and diverse ways will mean that qualifications and credibility of practitioners and expertise are essential tasks for both the future of the social science expert and society. The professional maturity standards of other longstanding professions such as law and medicine offer some insight into how to minimize the adverse effects of education, increased numbers of practitioners, and the influence of the widespread distorted information—about the experts and their expertise. The original intellectual founders such as Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Hayek remind so-called experts about the importance of an independent national voice. Its nurturing and recognition in the future will continue to influence the contributions of the modern so-called experts to the societal public good.