Institute of Social Science

Mission:

The Institute of Social Science aims to raise the profile of social science nationally, support collaborative research and postgraduate study in the social sciences, and form a network of social scientists both inside and outside Kingston University.

About the Institute of Social Science

The Institute of Social Science (ISS) has been launched at Kingston University with a remit of encouraging collaborative research among its social scientists in varied departments across the University. With its base in the School of Social Science (Faculty of Arts and Social Science), the director Professor Antonia (Toni) Bifulco is a psychologist and sociologist with a wide interest in health, social care and criminal justice domains.

It seeks to consolidate the research and postgraduate excellence within the School and reach out across different faculties to enhance cross-disciplinary synergy for the advancement of research and postgraduate study. Its function will also be to network outside the University with other academic institutions and with practitioners in social science based professions. The Institute is planning a series of events in order to aid the interchange of ideas and expert knowledge on important social issues to activate knowledge exchange between research disciplines and with practice to influence social policy.

Defining and mapping social science

The Institute of Social Science will have a broad reach in encompassing different aspects of social science. It takes the following as its definition of social science.

Any scholastic discipline or scientific field that investigates human society and an individual's relationship with, and interaction in, society.

The traditionally accepted branches of social science which examine and study an individual's interactions with others and with society include anthropology, economics, history, political science, psychology and sociology. More recent additions encompass education, geography, law, linguistics, criminology and archaeology. The diagram below shows those present in Kingston University emanating from the School of Social Science (which includes criminology, sociology, psychology, politics and history) and extending across faculties to education, humanities, healthcare, social care, business and law. The final circle shows its reach to relevant professions and policy makers.

Methodology is important in the social sciences and a central focus of the Institute of Social Science. Social science is in part defined by its use of both quantitative and qualitative methods in investigating individual and collective lives. This includes standardised assessments, observation and subjective explanation, together with statistical tools to test and substantiate social science theory. The challenge is to find novel and effective ways of incorporating these to collect rich, contextual and personalised information from individuals and groups, as well as representative data on larger numbers to provide robust generalisable results. Varied methods are increasingly needed to aid in social scientists' understanding relationships and interactions in more complex model development and methodological innovation, for example aided by new technologies, is needed to extend its portfolio of methods to incorporate both numbers and narrative. Extending methodology is an important theme in the new Institute.

The ultimate aim of any social science activity or enterprise is to accumulate and communicate knowledge about individual and collective lives, with the hope of alleviating social ills and working towards a more peaceful and fulfilled society.