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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Exploratory Social Science: Realizing Better

Exploratory Social Science: Realizing Better

Mulgan, Geoff

Hardcover

Business GeneralGeneral Sociology

PREORDER - Expected ship date October 2, 2026

ISBN10: 0197861938
ISBN13: 9780197861936
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: Oct 2 2026
Pages: 240
Weight: 0.94
Height: 0.69 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
At a time when the public badly want better public services, trustworthy politics, and a healthy biosphere, the social sciences have prioritized analysis and critique over design. Ours is a golden age of diagnosis but a dark age of prescription, which contributes to a widening gap between extraordinary technological dynamism and social stagnation. Exploratory Social Science shows how the social sciences can return to their best traditions and define pathways and options for the future: helping to change the world, rather than just interpreting it. The first use of the phrase social science came in a book two centuries ago which analysed social problems, including stark inequality, and proposed how they could be tackled. Mulgan argues we need similar combinations of analysis and prescription for current issues such as living with AI, declining birthrates, rampant disinformation, and rising global temperatures.

Exploratory Social Science investigates how to make the most of the many resources available to social science, from history to data analytics, studies of systems and complexity to methods from design and the arts. These can be used to shape options for tasks such as reinventing democracy and care or designing new public institutions Most social scientists want to use their knowledge to serve their societies, but in recent years have been discouraged from design by trends leaning towards narrow empiricism and away from creative imagination. Many younger social scientists think it career-threatening to move from analysis to prescription. This book shows how to harness their intellects and energy for the greater good.

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