A crowd watches an Aboriginal band at the Yabun Festival

What is Social Science?

Social science helps to improve people’s lives by addressing health, education, business and other fields. In particular, it provides tools to measure social dynamics. That is, it provides insight about how societies and social relationships work. Social science integrates nature and the environment as well as individual will, the mind, and community relationships.

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Social Science of Common Sense

We’re constantly told to act according to common sense. Common sense is supposed to stop us from making foolish mistakes, and in many ways it does. This notion describes all of our social learning in a nutshell. It’s the collection of the sum total of our personal experiences as well as those of the people around us. It helps us walk into a situation with a certain level of familiarity. The problem with common sense is that it can be misleading.

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A diverse racial group sit along a table with laptops open

Work to live or live to work? Social science shows what employees want

Studies show that most employees are unhappy with the way they’re under-utilised at work and with the break down of trust in their organisations. Many workers feel their employers lack integrity. With an ageing workforce on the rise, people feel increasingly pressured to delay their retirement.

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A laptop showing a photo blog sits on a table next to a coffee cup

How to Set Up Your Business Blog

There is a large volume of advice articles on how to set up and write an effective blog. This post brings together the advice that influenced me in setting up my various personal blogs, The Other Sociologist and my Tumblr, as well as my blog on Sociology at Work. I want to focus on the little tips that may not seem immediately important, but from experience, I can guarantee you that they make it harder for your blog to be enjoyed and shared easily.

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A white man frowns as a white woman is talking to him and pointing to a book

Making the Most of Communication Styles Within Business

Today’s post provides an overview of the key personality types that are used in management training and in team building exercises. I will then talk about some of the limitations of applying personality types too strictly within organisations. I’ll discuss how managers and leaders can adopt a more flexible model of personality types to improve how their team members communicate with one another, which in turn will boost their team contributions at work.

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Work Riot is About Institutions

An article in the New Yorker that the riot in Foxconn, Taiyuan, China, is “about institutions.”

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