Social Scientists in the Civic Space: Ethical Perspectives on Democratic Involvement

The book explores the stakes for the social sciences around four central problems: the challenges of context; modes of intervention; involvement; and the ethical dilemmas for the scholar in a democratic space. The first, challenges of the context, examines the variety of situations confronted by scholars since the beginning of the 20th century. These include their interventions in key judicial affairs, the impact of technological developments like the introduction of big data, or even the positionality of the scholar. Second, the book investigates the modalities according to which social scientists may intervene in the civic space: in particular as specialists, as experts, or in the media. A third problem brings together some cases illustrative of researchers’ involvement in critical issues, such as food policies, major social reforms, or gender-related questions. Finally, the book concludes with a reflection on the modes of exercising critique or dissent in democratic societies and on the ethical dimensions of involvement in the civic space.

A searing examination of the role of social scientists, as they are called upon to address the multiple critical issues faced by contemporary societies, from pandemics to climatic change, sustainable development, migration, ethnicity, or the place of religion. This volume will be of great interest not just to scholars, students, and researchers of the social sciences but to the general reader as a concerned citizen.

Arundhati Virmani, historian at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Marseilles, works on transformations of cultural and political practices from the colonial period to the contemporary moment in India and in Europe.

Jean Boutier Professor emeritus of early modern European history at the École des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Marseilles) and former director of the Norbert Elias Centre in Social Sciences (2002-2011) is a specialist of comparative history of social elites.

Manohar Kumar is Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Sciences and Humanities, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT-D) Delhi, India.