The Price of Success: Sociologist Harry Alpert, the NSF's First Social Science Policy Architect.

Harry Alpert (1912-1977), the US sociologist, is best-known for his directorship of the National Science Foundation's social science programme in the 1950s. This study extends our understanding of Alpert in two main ways: first, by examining the earlier development of his views and career. Beginning...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Annals of Science Vol. 68; no. 2; pp. 229 - 261
Autores principales: Solovey, Mark, Pooley, JeffersonD.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Taylor & Francis Ltd Apr2011
Materias:
Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=59793217&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 59793217
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        00033790
        7J1
      jtl: Annals of Science
      issn: 00033790
      maglogo: Y
    pubinfo:
      dt: Apr2011
      vid: 68
      iid: 2
      pid: 377
      pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd
    artinfo:
      ui:
        59793217
        10.1080/00033790.2010.516244
      ppf: 229
      ppct: 32
      formats:
        fmt:
          – @attributes:
              type: T
          – @attributes:
              type: P
              size: 243KB
      tig:
        atl: The Price of Success: Sociologist Harry Alpert, the NSF's First Social Science Policy Architect.
      aug:
        au:
          Solovey, Mark
          Pooley, JeffersonD.
        affil:
          University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
          Muhlenberg College, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA
      su:
        Alpert, Harry
        Social policy
        Sociologists
        Sociology
        National Science Foundation (U.S.)
        Employees
        Biography (Literary form)
        United States
      sug:
        subj:
          United States
          Alpert, Harry
          Social policy
          Sociologists
          Sociology
          National Science Foundation (U.S.)
          Employees
          Biography (Literary form)
      ab: Harry Alpert (1912-1977), the US sociologist, is best-known for his directorship of the National Science Foundation's social science programme in the 1950s. This study extends our understanding of Alpert in two main ways: first, by examining the earlier development of his views and career. Beginning with his 1939 biography of Emile Durkheim, we explore the early development of Alpert's views about foundational questions concerning the scientific status of sociology and social science more generally, proper social science methodology, the practical value of social science, the academic institutionalisation of sociology, and the unity-of-science viewpoint. Second, this paper illuminates Alpert's complex involvement with certain tensions in mid-century US social science that were themselves linked to major transformations in national science policy, public patronage, and unequal relations between the social and natural sciences. We show that Alpert's views about the intellectual foundations, practical relevance, and institutional standing of the social sciences were, in some important respects, at odds with his NSF policy work. Although remembered as a quantitative evangelist and advocate for the unity-of-science viewpoint, Alpert was in fact an urbane critic of natural-science envy, social scientific certainty, and what he saw as excessive devotion to quantitative methods.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Copyright of Annals of Science is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
      item: Annals of Science
      holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2011
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N