Before Memmo my notes were scattered across PDFs. Now a workspace pulls everything into one place — I see exactly what's still left to study.
How social scientists' disagreements about their key words and distinctions have been misconceived, and what to do about it
Social scientists do research on a variety of topics—gender, capitalism, populism, and race and ethnicity, among others. They make descriptive and explanatory claims about empathy, intelligence, neoliberalism, and power. They advise policymakers on diversity, digitalization, work, and religion. And yet, as Gabriel Abend points out in this provocative book, they can’t agree on what these things are and how to identify them. How to tell if something is a religion or a cult or a sect? What is empathy? What makes this society a capitalist one? Disputes of this sort arise again and again in the social sciences.
Abend argues that these disagreements have been doubly misconceived. First, they conflate two questions: how a social science community should use its most important words, and what distinctions it should accept and work with. Second, there’s no fact of the matter about either. Instead, they’re practical reason questions for a community, which aim at epistemically and morally good outcomes. Abend calls on social science communities to work together on their words, distinctions, and classifications. They must make collective decisions about the uses of words, the acceptability of distinctions, and the criteria for assessing both. These decisions aren’t up to individual scholars; the community gets the last word. According to Abend, the common good, justice, and equality should play a significant role in the logic of scientific research.
Gabriel Abend is professor of sociology at University of Lucerne and the author of The Moral Background: An Inquiry into the History of Business Ethics (Princeton).
Before Memmo my notes were scattered across PDFs. Now a workspace pulls everything into one place — I see exactly what's still left to study.
Memmo's summaries are gold before exams. I don't have to re-read 800 pages two weeks before — just the important parts.
The AI chat has saved me the night before an exam more than once. I just keep asking until I get it — no waiting on a study group to reply.
The quizzes hit exactly what I need to know. Memmo tracks what I get stuck on — so I only practice what's worth it.
Flashcards with spaced repetition are magic. Memmo knows when I'm about to forget something and brings it back.
The AI podcasts are my favorite. I listen on my way to school and get a recap without sitting at a computer.
Handbok i kvalitativa metoder
281 kr
Hållbar utveckling: en introduktion för ingenjörer och andra problemlösare
334 kr
Brymans Samhällsvetenskapliga metoder
390 kr
Projektledning
491 kr
Den orättvisa hälsan: om socioekonomiska skillnader i hälsa och livslängd
326 kr
Organizational Leadership
429 kr
Vetenskapsteori för nybörjare
196 kr
På väg mot läraryrket
172 kr
Det sociala livet i skolan: Socialpsykologiska perspektiv
253 kr
Betygsättningens didaktik
151 kr
Personality
402 kr
Studying Leadership
404 kr
Managing Innovation
477 kr
Introduktion till samhällsvetenskaplig metod
347 kr
The Psychology of Sex and Gender
698 kr
Evidens och kunskap för socialt arbete
207 kr
Introduction to Leadership
605 kr