Important Next Steps in Phronetic Social Science

Bent Flyvbjerg, Todd Landman, and Sanford Schram, eds., Real Social Science: Applied Phronesis, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 285-297, DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511719912.016

13 Pages Posted: 13 Jun 2013

See all articles by Bent Flyvbjerg

Bent Flyvbjerg

University of Oxford - Said Business School; IT University of Copenhagen; St Anne's College, University of Oxford

Todd Landman

University of Essex

Sanford F. Schram

Bryn Mawr College - Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research

Date Written: April 1, 2012

Abstract

The term ‘phronetic social science’ was coined in Making Social Science Matter (Flyvbjerg 2001). However, as pointed out in that volume and by Schram (2006), phronetic social science existed well before this particular articulation of the concept, but it was just not organized, recognized or named as such. Rather, it occurred here and there as scholars had adopted phronesis-like methods for their own purposes. The present title is the first organized volume of empirical-practical work in phronetic social science. Before Making Social Science Matter, phronesis, as a critical term of Aristotelian philosophy, had been theorized and its continuing importance as a key concept in Western thought had been convincingly argued by distinguished philosophers like Hans Georg Gadamer, Hannah Arendt, Alasdair MacIntyre and Richard J. Bernstein, among others. But no one had developed the theory and philosophy of phronesis into a practical methodology that could be applied by researchers interested in actually practising a phronetic social science. Making Social Science Matter developed such a methodology. Its implications were discussed and developed further in Making Political Science Matter (Schram and Caterino 2006). After these two theoretical-methodological contributions, it was evident that an important next step in demonstrating the usefulness of phronetic social science would be to illustrate, with concrete examples, how applied phronesis works in practical, empirical social science research. The contributions on applied phronesis contained in the present volume make clear that this next step has now been taken.

Suggested Citation

Flyvbjerg, Bent and Landman, Todd and Schram, Sanford F., Important Next Steps in Phronetic Social Science (April 1, 2012). Bent Flyvbjerg, Todd Landman, and Sanford Schram, eds., Real Social Science: Applied Phronesis, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 285-297, DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511719912.016, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2278190

Bent Flyvbjerg (Contact Author)

University of Oxford - Said Business School ( email )

Oxford
Great Britain

IT University of Copenhagen ( email )

Copenhagen
Denmark

St Anne's College, University of Oxford ( email )

Oxford
United Kingdom

Todd Landman

University of Essex ( email )

Wivenhoe Park
Colchester CO4 3SQ, CO4 3SQ
United Kingdom
441206872129 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.essex.ac.uk/government

Sanford F. Schram

Bryn Mawr College - Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research ( email )

Bryn Mawr, PA 19010
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
771
Abstract Views
3,785
Rank
60,106
PlumX Metrics