Production of Knowledge in Social Sciences: Paradigms and Methods

The development of modern science provided a dominant model of knowledge for social sciences, particularly for economics and sociology, to move beyond the theological and metaphysical types. Following the basic ethos of the scientific method - positivism -different kind of methods can be used for acquiring knowledge in the social sciences. Despite this common principle, there are multiple factors that set the social sciences apart from the natural sciences such as the existence of multiple paradigms contemporarily. These paradigms differ in terms of their philosophical foundations, ideological underpinnings, and levels of analysis of the complex phenomena (micro, macro and global). Structural functionalism (macro), conflict theory (macro) and symbolic interaction (micro) are the major paradigms existing within Sociology; with Classical economics, Neo Classical Economics and Keynesianism being the major ones in Economics. Shifts in paradigms and methods can happen in a wide variety of situations such as the development of new technology, growth of science, invention of the scientific method, economic crisis and dominance of the ideology of the ruling elite. The emergence of Research Networks as the major mode of knowledge production in the social sciences and the adoption of the Neoliberal model of economics are two major shifts in recent history, brought about by the developments in information and communication and the economic crises of the 1970’s, respectively.