Rick Szostak – författare

What if we recognized that the human sciences collectively investigate a few dozen key phenomena that interact with each other? Can we imagine a human science that would seek to stitch its understandings of this system of phenomena into a coherent whole? If so, what would that look like?

This book argues that we are unlikely to develop one unified "theory of everything." Our collective understanding must then be a "map" of the myriad relationships within this large – but finite and manageable – system, coupled with detailed understandings of each causal link and of important subsystems. The book outlines such a map and shows that the pursuit of coherence – and a more successful human science enterprise – requires integration, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of different methods and theory types, and the pursuit of terminological and presentational clarity. It explores how these inter-connected goals can be achieved in research, teaching, library classification, public policy, and university administration. These suggestions are congruent with, and yet enhance, other projects for reform of the human sciences.

This volume is aimed at any scholar or student who seeks to comprehend how what they study fits within a broader understanding.

What if we recognized that the human sciences collectively investigate a few dozen key phenomena that interact with each other? Can we imagine a human science that would seek to stitch its understandings of this system of phenomena into a coherent whole? If so, what would that look like?

This book argues that we are unlikely to develop one unified "theory of everything." Our collective understanding must then be a "map" of the myriad relationships within this large – but finite and manageable – system, coupled with detailed understandings of each causal link and of important subsystems. The book outlines such a map and shows that the pursuit of coherence – and a more successful human science enterprise – requires integration, recognizing the strengths and weaknesses of different methods and theory types, and the pursuit of terminological and presentational clarity. It explores how these inter-connected goals can be achieved in research, teaching, library classification, public policy, and university administration. These suggestions are congruent with, and yet enhance, other projects for reform of the human sciences.

This volume is aimed at any scholar or student who seeks to comprehend how what they study fits within a broader understanding.

Addressing the philosophy of interdisciplinarity and its relationship to learning theory, this Handbook examines issues of curriculum, course design and pedagogy. This practical approach is built upon in subsequent chapters on the diversity of interdisciplinary teaching, specifically in study abroad programs, hybrid structures, and graduate contexts. Ultimately, experts discuss the challenges of introducing interdisciplinary pedagogy into a largely disciplinary teaching environment, and provide step-by-step advice on how to develop truly innovative, integrative education within existing university structures.

This accessible Handbook is an invaluable resource for both new and seasoned instructors of interdisciplinary studies. It will also appeal to students and scholars of political science, sociology, economics, and education policy.

Providing a global perspective on the development of American technology, Technology and American Society offers a historical narrative detailing major technological transformations over the last three centuries. With coverage devoted to both dramatic breakthroughs and incremental innovations, authors Gary Cross and Rick Szostak analyze the cause-and-effect relationship of technological change and its role in the constant drive for improvement and modernization. This fully-updated 3rd edition extends coverage of industry, home, office, agriculture, transport, constructions, and services into the twenty-first century, concluding with a new chapter on recent electronic and technological advances. Technology and American Society remains the ideal introduction to the myriad interactions of technological advancement with social, economic, cultural, and military change throughout the course of American history.

Providing a global perspective on the development of American technology, Technology and American Society offers a historical narrative detailing major technological transformations over the last three centuries. With coverage devoted to both dramatic breakthroughs and incremental innovations, authors Gary Cross and Rick Szostak analyze the cause-and-effect relationship of technological change and its role in the constant drive for improvement and modernization. This fully-updated 3rd edition extends coverage of industry, home, office, agriculture, transport, constructions, and services into the twenty-first century, concluding with a new chapter on recent electronic and technological advances. Technology and American Society remains the ideal introduction to the myriad interactions of technological advancement with social, economic, cultural, and military change throughout the course of American history.

Classification is the essential first step in science. The study of science, as well as the practice of science, will thus benefit from a detailed classification of different types of science.

In this book, science - defined broadly to include the social sciences and humanities - is first unpacked into its constituent elements: the phenomena studied, the data used, the theories employed, the methods applied, and the practices of scientists. These five elements are then classified in turn. Notably, the classifications of both theory types and methods allow the key strengths and weaknesses of different theories and methods to be readily discerned and compared. Connections across classifications are explored: should certain theories or phenomena be investigated only with certain methods? What is the proper function and form of scientific paradigms? Are certain common errors and biases in scientific practice associated with particular phenomena, data, theories, or methods? The classifications point to several ways of improving both specialized and interdisciplinary research and teaching, and especially of enhancing communication across communities of scholars. The classifications also support a superior system of document classification that would allow searches by theory and method used as well as causal links investigated.

Self-contained case studies teach students best practices in interdisciplinary research

Interdisciplinary research is a burgeoning field, largely due to its ability to tackle complex problems facing humanity that extend beyond a single disciplinary perspective and require interdisciplinary thinking and research for their resolution.

Case Studies in Interdisciplinary Research successfully applies the model of the interdisciplinary research process outlined by author Allen F. Repko in Interdisciplinary Research, (SAGE ©2008) to a wide spectrum of challenging research questions. Self-contained case studies, written by leaders in interdisciplinary research, and utilizing best-practice techniques in conducting interdisciplinary research shows students how to apply the interdisciplinary research process to a variety of problems.

This book proposes a novel approach to classification, discusses its myriad advantages, and outlines how such an approach to classification can best be pursued. It encourages a collaborative effort toward the detailed development of such a classification. This book is motivated by the increased importance of interdisciplinary scholarship in the academy, and the widely perceived shortcomings of existing knowledge organization schemes in serving interdisciplinary scholarship. It is designed for scholars of classification research, knowledge organization, the digital environment, and interdisciplinarity itself. The approach recommended blends a general classification with domain-specific classification practices. The book reaches a set of very strong conclusions:

-Existing classification systems serve interdisciplinary research and teaching poorly.

-A novel approach to classification, grounded in the phenomena studied rather than disciplines, would serve interdisciplinary scholarship much better. It would also have advantages for disciplinary scholarship. The productivity of scholarship would thus be increased.

-This novel approach is entirely feasible. Various concerns that might be raised can each be addressed. The broad outlines of what a new classification would look like are developed.

-This new approach might serve as a complement to or a substitute for existing classification systems.

-Domain analysis can and should be employed in the pursuit of a general classification. This will be particularly important with respect to interdisciplinary domains.

-Though the impetus for this novel approach comes from interdisciplinarity, it is also better suited to the needs of the Semantic Web, and a digital environment more generally.

Though the primary focus of the book is on classification systems, most chapters also address how the analysis could be extended to thesauri and ontologies. The possibility of a universal thesaurus is explored. The classification proposed has many of the advantages sought in ontologies for the Semantic Web. The book is therefore of interest to scholars working in these areas as well.                                                                                                                                                    

What are the causes of economic growth? As billions of people still live in poverty, this is perhaps the most important question in human science. It is also a very complex one, as rates of economic growth are influenced by a multitude of economic as well as political, geographical and sociological factors. This books attempts to advance a nuanced understanding of the process of economic growth by synthesizing the insights of several social science disciplines. Different theories and methods employed by economists and other social scientists to study the causes of economic growth are analyzed and it is shown how and why those insights should be integrated by applying best-practice techniques of interdisciplinary analysis. Scholars and practitioners are thus provided with a wide array of potential strategies for encouraging growth as well as guidance on how these strategies may interact.