The Social Scientific Gaze

Download or read book The Social Scientific Gaze written by Assoc Prof Per Wisselgren and published by Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.. This book was released on 2015-12-28 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Social Scientific Gaze examines the discursive formation of academic social science in the historical context of the 'social question', that is, the protracted and wide-ranging discussions on the social problems of modernity that were being debated with increased intensity during the nineteenth century. Empirically, the study focuses on the Lorén Foundation, a combined private funding agency and early research institute, which was set up in 1885 to promote the rise of Swedish social science and to investigate the social question. Comprising an heuristic case, the close analysis of the Foundation makes it possible not only to reconstruct its basic ideas and practices, but also to situate its activities in broader historical and sociological context.