How Does Social Science Work? Reflections on Practice by Paul DiesingReview by: Jana BradleyThe Library Quarterly, Vol. 62, No. 2 (Apr., 1992), pp. 227-229Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4308692 .

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REVIEWS 227

which bring together individuals who play a part in international conflicts. In the final chapter in this part, Gilbert F. White discusses the international ecology movement and demonstrates that only an interdisciplinary approach to ecologi- cal problems can hope to succeed. He notes that behavioral science is not pres- ently organized to contribute significantly to the complex problem of balancing human behavior with environmental constraints.

Part 5 contains Jessor's summary, in which he reiterates points made earlier and stresses that social science today is in a state of flux. He concludes correctly that while interdisciplinary research holds promise for the future, traditional disciplinary boundaries will persist because of their institutionalization in the university. Jessor presents a vision of behavioral science, a unified, systematic approach to understanding human conduct, as opposed to the current fragmen- tation conveyed by the phrase "behavioral sciences." Although the contributors are from diverse fields and represent different viewpoints, the careful reader can find convergences in their various chapters. Most encourage integrated, interdisciplinary research, several mention participant observation as a promis- ing approach to more difficult problems, and all see great changes ahead for behavioral science. Library professionals would benefit from reading this work, not only to inform their own behavioral research but also to keep tabs on what is happening within behavioral science disciplines. Jessor and his colleagues are to be commended for assembling an interesting and informative volume.

The book contains ample bibliographies attached to each contribution and a thorough index. We would like to have seen, however, more extensive biograph- ical sketches on the contributors, many of whom may not be familiar to people outside of their particular specialties.

Alan R. Sandstrom, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Indiana University-Purdue University at Fort Wayne

Pamela Effrein Sandstrom, School of Library and Information Science, Indiana University

How Does Social Science Work? Reflections on Practice. By PAUL DIESING. Pitt Series in Policy and Institutional Studies. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1991. Pp. xii+414. ISBN 0-8229-3661-5.

In How Does Social Science Work? Paul Diesing explores the nature of research in the social sciences. He describes the book as an attempt "to get at the actual practice and influences, conscious and unconscious, that lie behind the official procedures and rules that people are taught to follow" (p. ix). Diesing focuses on three main questions: "(1) What sort of truth or knowledge does social science provide? (2) How does or should it do this? (3) What weaknesses or dangers appear, and how can they be avoided or corrected?" (p. 303). His goal is "to promote greater self-awareness among social scientists" (p. x) and to develop in individual researchers an understanding of approaches to research that differ from their own.

To address his three questions, Diesing explores a wide range of theoretical and empirical work on the nature of science and social science and on the social, cognitive, and personality processes that occur during all phases of research. Part 1 focuses on perspectives from the philosophy of science. A sampling of issues that arise includes the validity of establishing "rules" that science should

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228 THE LIBRARY QUARTERLY

follow and the content of those rules; falsification, and the difficulties of de- termining the relative truth of competing theories; science as a self-critical pro- cess of analysis, correction, and change; theories about the actual way science does produce and modify "truth"; and the accurate interpretation of the mean- ings of words and actions.

Part 2, titled "Social Science Studies Itself," presents a diversity of theoretical and empirical perspectives on social science and on the social, cognitive, and personality processes that influence social science research. Issues include the way scientific communities maintain themselves and their degree of autonomy from society; the way researchers locate themselves in society; and the realities of how specific research projects are funded, carried through, written up, and received by other researchers. Additional chapters explore science politics and the political and pragmatic influences affecting what research questions get asked and what projects get funded; research from cognitive psychology and artificial intelligence bearing on how the mind approaches research problems; and the influence of the researcher's personality on research, including issues of gender and cognitive style. In part 3, "Putting It All Together," Diesing develops answers to his three questions through comparison, synthesis, and interpretation of the diverse and often conflicting material of parts I and 2.

Diesing uses two distinct methods in his treatment of research work that relates to the questions he has asked. For most of parts 1 and 2, Diesing presents the perspectives of major relevant theorists and researchers, explicating the material as he interprets its proponents would. This method is in the spirit of one aim of hermeneutic interpretation, clarifying the meaning of texts as they are intended. In part 3, and in the summary and conclusions sections of parts 1 and 2, he adopts the role of analyzer and synthesizer, comparing diverse theories and empirical studies and drawing conclusions. Generally, readers will have little difficulty distinguishing between Diesing's two roles-explicator from within each perspective and analyzer coming to conclusions in his own voice. Occasionally, though, it may be necessary to pause and assess which voice Dies- ing is using.

Diesing's conclusions can be summarized in general terms, with the caveat that their complexity and force come from the theoretical and empirical work he synthesizes. He concludes that social science "achieves knowledge through the development and diversification of traditions or research programs" (p. 320) that develop "the possibilities of some initial text, paradigm, method or con- cepts" (p. 325). These multiple "traditions or communities live side by side, more or less acrimoniously" (p. 326). Diesing weighs the claim that science advances by the mutual criticisms of conflicting communities that identify each other's weak points, and he looks for mechanisms that maintain and facilitate that communication. He concludes that communication within traditions works, first because of a shared disciplinary matrix (shared assumptions, perception of im- portant phenomena, language, concepts, ways of solving problems, and so forth) and, second, because of (in many traditions) a shared social concern "which mutes the egocentric striving for recognition and promotes a desire to communi- cate and share ideas" (p. 364). Between traditions, constructive mutual commu- nication rarely occurs, except between traditions sharing the same or similar concerns. In general, each tradition goes its own way, with the result that social science "produces a multiple, contradictory truth for our time-that is, a set of diversified perspectives and diagnoses of our changing, tangled and contradic- tory society" (p. 364).

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REVIEWS 229

It is unlikely that all readers will be sympathetic with all of Diesing's conclu- sions, certainly not with all the material presented, and perhaps not with some of Diesing's attempts at explicating from the inside. Each reader will come from his or her own tradition and will be familiar with, in varying depth and with varying degrees of sympathy or skepticism, some portion of the material Diesing interprets. The value of the book lies in the opportunity for the reader to consider, at one time, very diverse theoretical and empirical studies that bear on the issue of contemporary research. The challenge lies in understanding each perspective in its own terms, especially those outside one's own tradition. In this attempt, Diesing's discussion of ways to understand another tradition from the inside (hermeneutical interpretation), and his description of the more common occurrence of mistranslating and therefore misunderstanding other traditions, is extremely useful. The reader will also find the extensive bibliogra- phy helpful for moving beyond Diesing's abbreviated explications.

The research that Diesing cites, and his own extensive examples, come primar- ily from the natural sciences, psychology, sociology, political science, and eco- nomics. Diesing, the author of Patterns of Discovery in the Social Sciences (New York: Aldine, 1971), is a professor of political science at the State University of New York at Buffalo, although he claims not to have any disciplinary identity. The issues about research that he raises cross disciplinary boundaries, however, and readers from the field of library and information science will undoubtedly find themselves assessing the extent to which various theories and patterns of empirical observation apply to our field.

How Does Social Science Work? is a thought-provoking attempt to present and then weigh and synthesize theory and empirical work bearing on research in the social sciences. Its conclusions are bound to be controversial; the breadth of perspectives and the issues raised make it well worth reading, and the informal and occasionally iconoclastic style make it interesting as well.

Jana Bradley, Graduate School of Library anrd Information Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Data Game: Controversies in Social Science Statistics. By MARK H. MAIER. Ar- monk, N.Y.: M. E. Sharpe, 1991. Pp. xv+245. $39.95 (cloth); $14.95 (paper). ISBN 0-87332-588-5 (cloth); 0-87332-768-3 (paper).

A pleasant surprise, indeed, a very pleasant surprise. Like many others who are familiar with statistics and research methods, I am well aware of the limitations of social science statistics. Problems of conflicting figures, alternative data sources, imprecise measurement, and inadequate operational definitions are described and analyzed in many social science textbooks and taught in many research methods courses. All of this is known-in principle.

The major contribution of Mark H. Maier's new book is that it provides the needed complement to these principles. The Data Game presents vivid illustra- tions of the implications of many social statistics that have the schizophrenic quality of being at once "official" and ambiguous. Using governmental statistics and public data sources, Maier provides example after example of how these figures are used to support conclusions and promote policies that cannot be fully justified given the nature of the statistics.

The major chapters focus on different social areas: demography, housing,

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