Society as a Vocation: Renewing Social Science for Social Renewal

Abstract

The twentieth century witnessed the professionalisation of social science by making science its vocation. The twenty-first century must see social science become normative, with society its vocation. The paradox of neoliberalism is that its attack on the public university has forced social science to advance its public value and the grounds on which it is a public good in its own right, the outcome of which is that we must shift from science to society as our vocation. If society is to be the object of our life's commitment as social scientists – a vocation in that sense – then we pursue it with enthusiasm, sponsor and advance its interests, look to its renewal and improvement, and continually refine and enhance our understanding of it. This requires both a value-orientated and scientific approach, making social science scientific and normative at the same time. This new form of public social science is better suited to civic engagement and community empowerment as a form of co-produced knowledge appropriate to the wicked problems facing us in the twenty-first century. The argument, in other words, is that to better effect social renewal, we need first to renew social science.