136-549: Mary Abby van Kleeck (June 26, 1883 – June 8, 1972) was an American social scientist of the 20th century. She was a notable figure in the American labor movement as well as a proponent of scientific management and a planned economy . Of Dutch descent, van Kleeck was a lifelong New Yorker, with the exception of her undergraduate studies at Smith College in Massachusetts. She began her career as part of
272-471: A Bachelor of Science (BS) has a greater focus on science, math, and engineering. The Bachelor of Arts degree is a type of baccalaureate degree . A Bachelor of Arts degree is usually completed in four years: that is, it requires four years of full-time coursework during term time. However, just as with other degrees, some may require a longer time period. This is due to factors such as the student's ability, motivation, and access to financial assistance to earn
408-513: A Hochschule , which is the generic term in Germany for all institutions awarding academic degrees. Fachhochschule is often translated as "University of Applied Sciences". Universitäten place greater emphasis on fundamental science and background in theory, while Fachhochschulen are generally designed with a focus on teaching professional skills. Degrees earned at Universitäten and Fachhochschulen are legally equivalent. In Germany,
544-494: A degree in the subject. The classic brief definition of economics, set out by Lionel Robbins in 1932, is "the science which studies human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means which have alternative uses". Without scarcity and alternative uses, there is no economic problem . Briefer yet is "the study of how people seek to satisfy needs and wants" and "the study of the financial aspects of human behavior". Economics has two broad branches: microeconomics , where
680-611: A science of society based on historical materialism , becoming recognized as a founding figure of sociology posthumously as the term gained broader meaning. Around the start of the 20th century, the first wave of German sociologists, including Max Weber and Georg Simmel , developed sociological antipositivism. The field may be broadly recognized as an amalgam of three modes of social thought in particular: Durkheimian positivism and structural functionalism ; Marxist historical materialism and conflict theory ; and Weberian antipositivism and verstehen analysis. American sociology broadly arose on
816-704: A "shambling old house" in Woodstock , New York. Described by contemporaries as a serious, brilliant, and quiet person, van Kleeck played tennis and bridge and was a fan of theater and comedy sketches. A lifelong Christian , she was a member of the Episcopal League for Social Action and served as a "leading light" in the Society of the Companions of the Holy Cross , an Episcopal women's organization, in
952-457: A "system of rules", as an "interpretive concept" to achieve justice, as an "authority" to mediate people's interests, and even as "the command of a sovereign, backed by the threat of a sanction". However one likes to think of law, it is a completely central social institution. Legal policy incorporates the practical manifestation of thinking from almost every social science and the humanities. Laws are politics, because politicians create them. Law
1088-713: A 1931 New York Times article subtitled "Mary van Kleeck Says Social Effects of World Plans Should Be Test." Although appointed to the Federal Advisory Council of the New Deal U.S. Employment Service , she resigned in protest after one day due to her belief that the National Recovery Administration was not sufficiently supportive of unions. Van Kleeck continued to conduct labor studies and write in favor of socialist policies. Her book Miners and Management , published in 1934,
1224-456: A BA or BSc degree. However, some older or ancient universities , such as Oxford , Cambridge , and Trinity College Dublin traditionally award BAs to undergraduates having completed the final examinations, e.g., Part II Tripos (Cambridge), Final Honour Schools (Oxford), Moderator-ship (Dublin), in most subjects including the sciences. Some new plate glass universities established in the 1960s, such as York and Lancaster , originally followed
1360-489: A believer in our form of government today? Miss VAN KLEECK: Emphatically. I am an American with a long family background going back to the early days, and my whole work is devoted to the United States of America. Mr. COHN: My question was: You are a believer in the capitalist form of government? Miss VAN KLEECK: Is the United States essentially and forever capitalist? It has changed its form of organization through
1496-547: A book with Mary Fleddérus, entitled Technology and Livelihood. The book argued that increased technological innovation and efficiency inevitably lead to increased unemployment and underemployment, and suggested a strong welfare state and labor movement as the necessary remedy to this problem. Known for her prewar contributions to labor statistics, van Kleeck became a Fellow of the American Statistical Association in 1945. Van Kleeck retired from
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#17327867044301632-540: A cabinet position in the new Roosevelt administration in 1933, her increasingly radical views made this unlikely. By the early 1930s, van Kleeck had become a socialist , and she opposed the Roosevelt administration's New Deal initiatives. Van Kleeck favored Soviet-style economic planning , which she was convinced would be effective in solving the USA's continuing economic issues. Her views were widely publicized, such as in
1768-454: A degree of autonomy as practitioners from various disciplines share similar goals and methods. The history of the social sciences began in the Age of Enlightenment after 1651, which saw a revolution within natural philosophy , changing the basic framework by which individuals understood what was scientific. Social sciences came forth from the moral philosophy of the time and were influenced by
1904-421: A diversity of research methods, collecting both quantitative and qualitative data, draw upon empirical techniques, and engage critical theory. Common modern methods include case studies, historical research , interviewing, participant observation , social network analysis , survey research, statistical analysis, and model building, among other approaches. Since the late 1970s, many sociologists have tried to make
2040-662: A foundation to practical social research. Durkheim set up the first European department of sociology at the University of Bordeaux in 1895, publishing his Rules of the Sociological Method . In 1896, he established the journal L'Année sociologique . Durkheim's seminal monograph, Suicide (1897), a case study of suicide rates among Catholic and Protestant populations, distinguished sociological analysis from psychology or philosophy. Karl Marx rejected Comte's positivism but nevertheless aimed to establish
2176-434: A government controlled by capital and big business, which would "tend to protect property rights rather than human rights". Van Kleeck's speech, delivered to a packed crowd of 1500 in a room designed for 500, was so well-received that she received the conference's top award for an outstanding paper, and was asked to present the paper again to meet the high demand from attendees to hear her work. One journalist wrote: Never in
2312-452: A heavy science basis, or heavy social science basis to their degree. If they applied to read the BA . for example, but specialized in heavily science-based modules, then they will still generally be awarded the BA . Sociology is the systematic study of society, individuals' relationship to their societies, the consequences of difference, and other aspects of human social action . The meaning of
2448-858: A humanities-based subject is contested. In the United States the National Endowment for the Humanities includes history in its definition of humanities (as it does for applied linguistics). However, the National Research Council classifies history as a social science. The historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write history . The Social Science History Association , formed in 1976, brings together scholars from numerous disciplines interested in social history . The social science of law, jurisprudence, in common parlance, means
2584-642: A joint postgraduate fellowship from the College Settlement Association and the Smith College Alumnae Association which enabled her to perform research in New York City. As part of this work, van Kleeck carried out investigations of the enforcement of the labor law governing the workweek (limited to 60 hours at the time, though this provision was frequently ignored by employers). She also worked for
2720-610: A life of its own after World War II, influencing literary criticism and the Birmingham School establishment of cultural studies . Sociology evolved as an academic response to the challenges of modernity , such as industrialization , urbanization , secularization , and a perceived process of enveloping rationalization . The field generally concerns the social rules and processes that bind and separate people not only as individuals, but as members of associations , groups , communities and institutions , and includes
2856-414: A long experience of conferences has this observer witnessed such a prolonged ovation ... to her wearied and discouraged colleagues in social work she brought a new hope and dream when they had ceased to hope and dream, and she came in the person of an undeniable leader, clothed with the courage for a good fight. The effect on her hearers was electric. This reaction alarmed more conservative members of
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#17327867044302992-467: A long-time advocate of planned economies, she became a defender of Soviet-American friendship , leading to suspicion from the powerful anti-communist movement . She died aged 88 in 1972. Van Kleeck was born June 26, 1883, in Glenham, New York . She was the child of Eliza Mayer of Baltimore and Robert Boyd van Kleeck, an Episcopal minister of Dutch origin. On her father's side, she was descended from
3128-857: A longtime advocate of social-economic planning, van Kleeck visited the Soviet Union , which she viewed as being at the forefront of scientific management and labor rights. The next year, she was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . Van Kleeck also led the formation of the American Association of Social Workers, which later merged into the National Association of Social Workers . Although several fellow social scientists and activists advocated for van Kleeck to receive
3264-729: A master's degree. Along with the Bachelor of Science (B.S.), the Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) is the most commonly granted degree in the US. A B.A. degree is earned after the completion of four years of undergraduate college level study. The Bachelor of Science is abbreviated with periods i.e., B.S., and the Bachelor of Arts is abbreviated as B.A. Most US colleges and universities offer undergraduate programs. In colleges and universities in Australia, Nepal, New Zealand, India and South Africa,
3400-470: A member of up to 60 different "subversive" organizations that they considered possible fronts for communism. Several times, van Kleeck was denied a visa to travel abroad. As an openly dedicated socialist, van Kleeck was called before Joseph McCarthy 's Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations in 1953, where she was represented by civil rights lawyer Leonard Boudin and questioned by Roy Cohn . An excerpt from that questioning follows: Mr. COHN: Are you
3536-479: A mutual contempt for one another, the former looking down on the latter as unscientific, the latter regarding the former as philistine . […] The difference comes down to the fact that social science really wants to be predictive, meaning that man is predictable, while the humanities say that he is not. The social science disciplines are branches of knowledge taught and researched at the college or university level. Social science disciplines are defined and recognized by
3672-575: A nineteenth-century salon." From 1928, she was also active in the International Industrial Relations Institute , which she co-led with Mary (Mikie) Fleddérus . Prominent members of the Institute included Adelaide Anderson and Lillian Moller Gilbreth . Gilbreth, a friend, described van Kleeck as "the best research woman I know." Fleddérus, a Dutch social reformer, became van Kleeck's lifelong partner and
3808-517: A particular point in time), and a great deal of it—partly owing to the influence of Noam Chomsky —aims at formulating theories of the cognitive processing of language. However, language does not exist in a vacuum, or only in the brain, and approaches like contact linguistics, creole studies, discourse analysis , social interactional linguistics, and sociolinguistics explore language in its social context. Sociolinguistics often makes use of traditional quantitative analysis and statistics in investigating
3944-499: A people in detail, using biogenetic, archaeological, and linguistic data alongside direct observation of contemporary customs. In the 1990s and 2000s, calls for clarification of what constitutes a culture , of how an observer knows where his or her own culture ends and another begins, and other crucial topics in writing anthropology were heard. It is possible to view all human cultures as part of one large, evolving global culture. These dynamic relationships, between what can be observed on
4080-698: A priority to appoint a black woman to the staff of the Women in Industry Service group, working with George Haynes to find a suitable candidate. Eventually, an experienced researcher named Helen Irvin , a graduate of Howard University , was hired from the Red Cross . In December 1918, the group published a wide-ranging report entitled Standards for the Employment of Women in Industry. The report
4216-503: A professional relationship which would last for forty years. The organization had been founded by Margaret Olivia Sage to support social activism and Progressive reforms through dedicated scientific research. Mentored and trained by Florence Kelley and Lilian Brandt , prominent older labor activists and social reformers, van Kleeck was hired directly by the Foundation in 1910 to lead its Committee on Women's Work. Her initial salary
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4352-447: A rule that (unlike a rule of ethics ) is capable of enforcement through institutions. However, many laws are based on norms accepted by a community and thus have an ethical foundation. The study of law crosses the boundaries between the social sciences and humanities, depending on one's view of research into its objectives and effects. Law is not always enforceable, especially in the international relations context. It has been defined as
4488-623: A separate trajectory, with little Marxist influence, an emphasis on rigorous experimental methodology, and a closer association with pragmatism and social psychology . In the 1920s, the Chicago school developed symbolic interactionism . Meanwhile, in the 1930s, the Frankfurt School pioneered the idea of critical theory , an interdisciplinary form of Marxist sociology drawing upon thinkers as diverse as Sigmund Freud and Friedrich Nietzsche . Critical theory would take on something of
4624-459: A strong (or entire) scientific concentration, whereas a BA underlines a majority of social science credits. This is not always necessarily the case however, and in many UK institutions students studying the BPsy , BSc , and BA follow the same curriculum as outlined by The British Psychological Society and have the same options of specialism open to them regardless of whether they choose a balance,
4760-498: A theoretical structure. The development of social science subfields became very quantitative in methodology. The interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary nature of scientific inquiry into human behaviour, social and environmental factors affecting it, made many of the natural sciences interested in some aspects of social science methodology. Examples of boundary blurring include emerging disciplines like social research of medicine , sociobiology , neuropsychology , bioeconomics and
4896-400: A third class honours degree (for example, BA with distinction, merit or pass). A Bachelor of Arts is entitled to the post-nominal letters BA for an ordinary or pass degree and BA (Hons) for an honours degree. (However, graduates entitled to use the "Hons" post-nominal very rarely do so in practice.) The academic dress worn by honours and non-honours graduates is identical. An honours degree
5032-423: Is a relatively autonomous term, encompassing the work of practitioners from various disciplines that share in its aims and methods. Social scientists employ a range of methods in order to analyse a vast breadth of social phenomena; from census survey data derived from millions of individuals, to the in-depth analysis of a single agent's social experiences; from monitoring what is happening on contemporary streets, to
5168-500: Is a social science that seeks to analyze and describe the production, distribution, and consumption of wealth. The word "economics" is from the Ancient Greek οἶκος ( oikos , "family, household, estate") and νόμος ( nomos , "custom, law"), and hence means "household management" or "management of the state". An economist is a person using economic concepts and data in the course of employment, or someone who has earned
5304-402: Is a very broad science that is rarely tackled as a whole, major block. Although some subfields encompass a natural science base and a social science application, others can be clearly distinguished as having little to do with the social sciences or having a lot to do with the social sciences. For example, biological psychology is considered a natural science with a social scientific application (as
5440-431: Is always awarded in one of four classes, depending upon the marks gained in the final assessments and examinations. The top students are awarded a first-class degree, followed by an upper second-class degree (usually referred to as a 2:1), a lower second-class degree (usually referred to as a 2:2), and those who pass with the lowest marks gain a third-class degree. An ordinary, pass or unclassified degree (which does not give
5576-543: Is an academic and applied field involving the study of behaviour and mental processes. Psychology also refers to the application of such knowledge to various spheres of human activity, including problems of individuals' daily lives and the treatment of mental illness . The word psychology comes from the Ancient Greek ψυχή ( psyche , "soul" or "mind") and the suffix logy ("study"). Psychology differs from anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology in seeking to capture explanatory generalizations about
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5712-547: Is an area that is offered at most undergraduate institutions. The word anthropos ( ἄνθρωπος ) in Ancient Greek means "human being" or "person". Eric Wolf described sociocultural anthropology as "the most scientific of the humanities, and the most humanistic of the sciences". The goal of anthropology is to provide a holistic account of humans and human nature. This means that, though anthropologists generally specialize in only one sub-field, they always keep in mind
5848-450: Is clinical medicine), social and occupational psychology are, generally speaking, purely social sciences, whereas neuropsychology is a natural science that lacks application out of the scientific tradition entirely. In British universities, emphasis on what tenet of psychology a student has studied and/or concentrated is communicated through the degree conferred: BPsy indicates a balance between natural and social sciences, BSc indicates
5984-515: Is philosophy, because moral and ethical persuasions shape their ideas. Law tells many of history's stories, because statutes, case law and codifications build up over time. And law is economics, because any rule about contract , tort , property law , labour law , company law and many more can have long-lasting effects on the distribution of wealth. The noun law derives from the Old English lagu , meaning something laid down or fixed and
6120-467: Is the continuous, systematic narrative and research into past human events as interpreted through historiographical paradigms or theories. When used as the name of a field of study , history refers to the study and interpretation of the record of humans , societies, institutions, and any topic that has changed over time. Traditionally, the study of history has been considered a part of the humanities . In modern academia , whether or not history remains
6256-402: Is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts , or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years, depending on the country and institution. The Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree is an undergraduate postsecondary degree that puts a focus on liberal arts and studies. In comparison,
6392-431: Is the holistic "science of man", a science of the totality of human existence. The discipline deals with the integration of different aspects of the social sciences, humanities , and human biology . In the twentieth century, academic disciplines have often been institutionally divided into three broad domains. Firstly, the natural sciences seek to derive general laws through reproducible and verifiable experiments. Secondly,
6528-552: The Journal of Political Economy arguing that working girls should be able to access evening school courses without financial barriers, published in May 1915. Van Kleeck also found the time to serve on New York Mayor John P. Mitchel's Committee on Unemployment. In addition, she taught a series of courses on industrial issues at Columbia University 's New York School of Philanthropy from 1914 to 1917. At Columbia, Van Kleeck encountered
6664-641: The Age of Revolutions , such as the Industrial Revolution and the French Revolution . The social sciences developed from the sciences ( experimental and applied ), or the systematic knowledge-bases or prescriptive practices, relating to the social improvement of a group of interacting entities . The beginnings of the social sciences in the 18th century are reflected in the grand encyclopedia of Diderot , with articles from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other pioneers. The growth of
6800-552: The Latin educare , or to facilitate the realization of an individual's potential and talents. It is an application of pedagogy , a body of theoretical and applied research relating to teaching and learning and draws on many disciplines such as psychology, philosophy , computer science , linguistics, neuroscience , sociology and anthropology. Geography as a discipline can be split broadly into two main sub fields: human geography and physical geography . The former focuses largely on
6936-819: The New York Child Labor Committee and the Consumers League . Van Kleeck's work with the College Settlement Association, along with her role as industrial secretary of the Alliance Employment Bureau (AEB), represented the beginning of her research on women in industry and child labor. For the AEB, she conducted a study on the irregular working conditions of milliners and makers of artificial flowers, both major sources of employment for women at
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#17327867044307072-711: The Rockefeller coal and steel works (in cooperation with Ben Selekman ), the Dutchess Bleachery, and Filene's Department Store . These studies collectively represented "one of the decade's most searching examinations of the dramatic changes underway in the relationship between capital, labor, stockholders, and management," according to the economic historian Mark Hendrickson. During the 1920s, van Kleeck also served on several government committees in Harding's , Coolidge's , and Hoover 's administrations, including
7208-532: The Schenck family of Brooklyn . On her mother's side, her grandfather was Charles F. Mayer , a prominent Baltimore lawyer and politician. The youngest of five siblings, including a brother who died in infancy, Van Kleeck was close to her mother, but had a distant relationship with her father, who was often sick when she was young. He died in 1892, when she was only nine. With a strong reputation for intelligence and force of personality among her classmates, Van Kleeck
7344-581: The Sophia Smith Collection at her alma mater, with the assistance of Margaret Storrs Grierson . Van Kleeck had been uncertain whether her documents were of value, saying that "to write about [national issues] with merely me as the unifying element would belittle them to the vanishing point," but came around to believe that "the collection, if properly arranged, would be the most useful biography." Throughout her retirement, she lived with her longtime romantic companion Mary "Mikie" Fleddérus in
7480-496: The United States and Europe . Another route undertaken was initiated by Émile Durkheim , studying "social facts", and Vilfredo Pareto , opening metatheoretical ideas and individual theories. A third means developed, arising from the methodological dichotomy present, in which social phenomena were identified with and understood; this was championed by figures such as Max Weber . The fourth route taken, based in economics,
7616-630: The YWCA , which she remained affiliated with for the remainder of her life. At a YWCA summer retreat in Silver Bay , New York, van Kleeck was drawn to the ideas of Florence Simms, the YWCA's industrial secretary. Van Kleeck became determined to dedicate her career to public service, an ideal to which she dedicated a poem in Smith's yearbook. A year after graduating from Smith with an A.B. , van Kleeck received
7752-411: The academic journals in which research is published, and the learned social science societies and academic departments or faculties to which their practitioners belong. Social science fields of study usually have several sub-disciplines or branches, and the distinguishing lines between these are often both arbitrary and ambiguous. The following are widely-considered to be social sciences: Anthropology
7888-496: The built environment and how space is created, viewed and managed by humans as well as the influence humans have on the space they occupy. This may involve cultural geography , transportation , health , military operations , and cities . The latter examines the natural environment and how the climate, vegetation and life, soil, oceans , water and landforms are produced and interact (is also commonly regarded as an Earth Science ). Physical geography examines phenomena related to
8024-419: The history and sociology of science . Increasingly, quantitative research and qualitative methods are being integrated in the study of human action and its implications and consequences. In the first half of the 20th century, statistics became a free-standing discipline of applied mathematics. Statistical methods were used confidently. In the contemporary period, Karl Popper and Talcott Parsons influenced
8160-533: The law , education , health , economy and trade , and art . Around the start of the 21st century, the expanding domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism . A distinction is usually drawn between the social sciences and the humanities . Classicist Allan Bloom writes in The Closing of the American Mind (1987): Social science and humanities have
8296-412: The measurement of earth . As a result of the two subfields using different approaches a third field has emerged, which is environmental geography . Environmental geography combines physical and human geography and looks at the interactions between the environment and humans. Other branches of geography include social geography , regional geography , and geomatics . Geographers attempt to understand
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#17327867044308432-408: The mental function and overt behaviour of individuals, while the other disciplines focus on creating descriptive generalizations about the functioning of social groups or situation-specific human behaviour. In practice, however, there is quite a lot of cross-fertilization that takes place among the various fields. Psychology differs from biology and neuroscience in that it is primarily concerned with
8568-484: The settlement movement , investigating women's labor in New York City. Van Kleeck rose to prominence as director of the Russell Sage Foundation 's Department of Industrial Studies, which she led for over 30 years, beginning in 1916. During World War I , van Kleeck was appointed by US President Woodrow Wilson to lead the development of workplace standards for women entering the workforce , becoming
8704-903: The 18th century. In addition to sociology, it now encompasses a wide array of academic disciplines , including anthropology , archaeology , economics , geography , linguistics , management , communication studies , psychology , culturology and political science . Positivist social scientists use methods resembling those used in the natural sciences as tools for understanding societies, and so define science in its stricter modern sense . Interpretivist or speculative social scientists, by contrast, may use social critique or symbolic interpretation rather than constructing empirically falsifiable theories, and thus treat science in its broader sense. In modern academic practice, researchers are often eclectic , using multiple methodologies (for instance, by combining both quantitative and qualitative research ). The term social research has also acquired
8840-844: The 19th and early 20th centuries. Ferdinand Saussure is considered the father of modern linguistics. Political science is an academic and research discipline that deals with the theory and practice of politics and the description and analysis of political systems and political behaviour. Fields and subfields of political science include political economy , political theory and philosophy , civics and comparative politics , theory of direct democracy , apolitical governance, participatory direct democracy, national systems, cross-national political analysis, political development, international relations, foreign policy , international law , politics, public administration, administrative behaviour, public law, judicial behaviour, and public policy . Political science also studies power in international relations and
8976-537: The ACLU from 1935 until 1940, when she resigned in protest after the ACLU expelled Elizabeth Gurley Flynn , one of its own founders, for belonging to the Communist Party. Van Kleeck was initially opposed to American entry into World War II , viewing it as an imperialist misadventure. During the war, she continued to argue for the inclusion of women in government and the labor force. In 1944, van Kleeck co-wrote
9112-557: The BA course normally lasts between three and three and a half years—six or seven semesters—and the degree is awarded after the student earns between 180 and 210 ECTS . In the Netherlands, the BA and Master of Arts (MA) degrees were introduced in 2002. Until then, a single program led to the doctorandus degree (abbreviated drs.), which comprised the same course load as the bachelor's and master's programs combined. The title doctorandus
9248-399: The BA degree can be taken over three years of full-time study. Students must pursue at least one major area of study and units from that subject are usually studied in each year, though sometimes students may choose to complete upper-level classes in the same year and as a result, can leave space for elective subjects from a different field. At some universities, students may choose to pursue
9384-530: The BA degree has been consistent in its history. The Bachelor of Arts degree was formed out of the study of liberal arts . Liberal art is a term that was applied to the study of many branches of learning such as grammar , logic , rhetoric , arithmetic , geometry , astronomy , and music . The study of liberal arts started during the Middle Ages . During the Renaissance , the term liberal art
9520-482: The Communist Party, van Kleeck became a defender of the Soviet Union, believing it to represent the world's only viable alternative to capitalism. As a result, she came under government suspicion and sustained FBI surveillance as a ' fellow traveler ' and possible secret member of the Communist Party, although no evidence of membership was ever presented. Congressional committees investigating communism listed her as
9656-910: The Earth in terms of physical and spatial relationships. The first geographers focused on the science of mapmaking and finding ways to precisely project the surface of the earth. In this sense, geography bridges some gaps between the natural sciences and social sciences. Historical geography is often taught in a college in a unified Department of Geography. Modern geography is an all-encompassing discipline, closely related to Geographic Information Science , that seeks to understand humanity and its natural environment. The fields of urban planning , regional science , and planetology are closely related to geography. Practitioners of geography use many technologies and methods to collect data such as Geographic Information Systems , remote sensing , aerial photography , statistics , and global positioning systems . History
9792-490: The Italian one, sociology slowly affirms itself and experiences the difficulty of affirming a strategic knowledge beyond philosophy and theology. Around the start of the 20th century, Enlightenment philosophy was challenged in various quarters. After the use of classical theories since the end of the scientific revolution, various fields substituted mathematics studies for experimental studies and examining equations to build
9928-612: The NCSW and led its president, William Hodson, to criticize van Kleeck's radicalism and opposition to the New Deal at the organization's annual banquet. In response, nearly 1,000 conference attendees organized to unofficially censure Hodson. Van Kleeck was also a member of the board of directors of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), heading up the Subcommittee on Labor Policy. She was affiliated with
10064-604: The President's Conference on Unemployment in 1921. Chaired by Hoover, who was then Secretary of Commerce , the unemployment committee developed a plan for the uniform calculation of employment statistics across the United States, work in which van Kleeck played a key role. An indefatigable worker, van Kleeck additionally was a trustee of Smith College from 1922 to 1930 and headed up the National Interracial Conference in 1928. In 1924, Will H. Hays ,
10200-681: The Sage Foundation at the age of 63 in 1948, having earned a salary of $ 8,808 in her final year with the organization. She ran for New York State Senate the same year as a member of the far-left American Labor Party in Manhattan's 20th District, against incumbent Republican MacNeil Mitchell and Democrat Evelyn B. Richman. In the last year of prominence for the American Labor Party, van Kleeck won 14,284 votes (10.01%), compared to Mitchell's 76,519 and Richman's 51,916. After
10336-458: The United States appointed to a position of authority in the federal government since the beginning of the country's involvement in World War I. Van Kleeck wrote that the great numbers of women brought into the workforce by the war represented a "new freedom" for women: "freedom to serve their country through their industry not as women but as workers judged by the same standards and rewarded by
10472-402: The abstract sound system of a particular language); however, work in areas like evolutionary linguistics (the study of the origins and evolution of language) and psycholinguistics (the study of psychological factors in human language) cut across these divisions. The overwhelming majority of modern research in linguistics takes a predominantly synchronic perspective (focusing on language at
10608-460: The adjective legal comes from the Latin word lex . Linguistics investigates the cognitive and social aspects of human language. The field is divided into areas that focus on aspects of the linguistic signal, such as syntax (the study of the rules that govern the structure of sentences), semantics (the study of meaning), morphology (the study of the structure of words), phonetics (the study of speech sounds) and phonology (the study of
10744-609: The behest of the War Industries Board and Herman Schneider , van Kleeck investigated the possibility of employing women in U.S. Army warehouses. She recommended the creation of a Women's Bureau in the War Department , and as a result President Woodrow Wilson appointed van Kleeck to lead a new Women in Industry Service group, a sub-agency of the Department of Labor . As such, she became the first woman in
10880-853: The biological, linguistic, historic and cultural aspects of any problem. Since anthropology arose as a science in Western societies that were complex and industrial, a major trend within anthropology has been a methodological drive to study peoples in societies with more simple social organization, sometimes called "primitive" in anthropological literature, but without any connotation of "inferior". Today, anthropologists use terms such as "less complex" societies or refer to specific modes of subsistence or production , such as "pastoralist" or "forager" or "horticulturalist" to refer to humans living in non-industrial, non-Western cultures, such people or folk ( ethnos ) remaining of great interest within anthropology. The quest for holism leads most anthropologists to study
11016-510: The bonds of slavery, but they forget that she is not a slave. Van Kleeck studied at Smith College from 1900 to 1904, where she flourished—studying calculus, writing poetry, and enjoying popularity among her fellow students. The Smith College Association for Christian Work (SCACW) was the main student organization on campus, and van Kleeck rapidly became involved. She served as president of the SCACW in 1903. Through this organization, she encountered
11152-1076: The degree. Just like other baccalaureate degrees, a Bachelor of Arts is historically offered only at public and private universities and colleges. A Bachelor of Arts, just like other bachelor's degrees, is an admission requirement for graduate and professional school. Beginning in the 1990s, junior colleges started to confer their own baccalaureate degrees. In addition to the standard BA degrees, there are career-specific Bachelor of Arts degrees, including Bachelor of Arts in Functional English , Bachelor of Arts in Administration , Bachelor of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies , and Regents Bachelor of Arts . The Bachelor of Arts degree has been prominent in academics for centuries. It influenced universities to begin focusing on broad topics such as algebra , psychology , biology , art , history , and philosophy . This aspect of
11288-580: The descriptive understanding of the social realm. He proposed that social ills could be remedied through sociological positivism, an epistemological approach outlined in The Course in Positive Philosophy [1830–1842] and A General View of Positivism (1844). Though Comte is generally regarded as the "Father of Sociology", the discipline was formally established by another French thinker, Émile Durkheim (1858–1917), who developed positivism as
11424-498: The discipline is as a cluster of sub-fields that examine different dimensions of society. For example, social stratification studies inequality and class structure; demography studies changes in population size or type; criminology examines criminal behaviour and deviance; and political sociology studies the interaction between society and state. Since its inception, sociological epistemologies, methods, and frames of enquiry, have significantly expanded and diverged. Sociologists use
11560-426: The discipline useful for purposes beyond the academy. The results of sociological research aid educators, lawmakers, administrators, developers, and others interested in resolving social problems and formulating public policy, through subdisciplinary areas such as evaluation research , methodological assessment, and public sociology . In the early 1970s, women sociologists began to question sociological paradigms and
11696-561: The division, soon renamed and expanded to become the Department of Industrial Studies, she became a well-known figure in the study of industrial labor conditions and women's employment in industry. Van Kleeck's department became an organization known for expertise on industry and labor, for training graduate students and for developing new methods of investigation. Its work was characterized by "careful empiricism , collegial review, and cooperation with state and private agencies," according to
11832-488: The early part of the 20th century, economics has focused largely on measurable quantities, employing both theoretical models and empirical analysis. Quantitative models, however, can be traced as far back as the physiocratic school . Economic reasoning has been increasingly applied in recent decades to other social situations such as politics , law, psychology , history , religion , marriage and family life, and other social interactions. The expanding domain of economics in
11968-561: The early years of the New Deal, van Kleeck was considered a leading figure of the American left , with considerable influence over the national social work movement, which advocated for progressive improvements in society. Her influence was showcased by a rapturous reception at the National Conference of Social Work (NCSW) meeting in 1934. There, she presented her paper "Our Illusions Regarding Government", arguing that social reformers must not allow themselves to be corrupted by
12104-540: The examination of the organization and development of human social life. The sociological field of interest ranges from the analysis of short contacts between anonymous individuals on the street to the study of global social processes . In the terms of sociologists Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann , social scientists seek an understanding of the Social Construction of Reality . Most sociologists work in one or more subfields . One useful way to describe
12240-594: The final secondary school exams in France and Spain (and of the International Baccalaureate ) come from this: le Baccalauréat and el Bachillerato , respectively. The ancient universities of Scotland award a Master of Arts degree to humanities or arts graduates, but a BSc to science graduates. This course takes four years for an honours degree and three for an ordinary. In Scotland, one can opt to take an ordinary degree, which ranks below
12376-525: The first woman appointed to a position of authority in the American federal government during the war. After the war, she led the creation of a federal agency to advocate for women in the workforce (the Women's Bureau ), before returning to the Sage Foundation and continuing her determined research into labor issues. By the 1930s, van Kleeck had become a socialist , arguing that central planning of economies
12512-419: The frequency of features, while some disciplines, like contact linguistics, focus on qualitative analysis. While certain areas of linguistics can thus be understood as clearly falling within the social sciences, other areas, like acoustic phonetics and neurolinguistics , draw on the natural sciences. Linguistics draws only secondarily on the humanities, which played a rather greater role in linguistic inquiry in
12648-442: The furtherance of the social sciences. Researchers continue to search for a unified consensus on what methodology might have the power and refinement to connect a proposed "grand theory" with the various midrange theories that, with considerable success, continue to provide usable frameworks for massive, growing data banks; for more, see consilience . The social sciences will for the foreseeable future be composed of different zones in
12784-510: The general laws derived in physics or chemistry, or they may explain individual cases through more general principles, as in many fields of psychology. Anthropology (like some fields of history) does not easily fit into one of these categories, and different branches of anthropology draw on one or more of these domains. Within the United States, anthropology is divided into four sub-fields: archaeology, physical or biological anthropology , anthropological linguistics , and cultural anthropology . It
12920-458: The graduate the right to add '(Hons)') may be awarded if a student has completed (i) followed a non-honours program, or (b) attempted an honours course but marginally failed to achieve third-class standard. Education in Canada is controlled by the provinces and can be very different depending on the province. While all Canadian universities offer four-year degrees, it is not uncommon, depending on
13056-531: The ground, as opposed to what can be observed by compiling many local observations remain fundamental in any kind of anthropology, whether cultural, biological, linguistic or archaeological. Communication studies deals with processes of human communication , commonly defined as the sharing of symbols to create meaning . The discipline encompasses a range of topics, from face-to-face conversation to mass media outlets such as television broadcasting. Communication studies also examine how messages are interpreted through
13192-496: The historian Guy Alchon. Van Kleeck's department frequently recommended labor reforms, such as the establishment of cooperative wage boards. More than once, the Sage Foundation was required to protect the Department of Industrial Studies from reprisals from aggrieved corporations which had been investigated by the department. The Remington Arms manufacturing company, criticized by van Kleeck's department in 1916 for providing substandard conditions for its workers, attempted to suppress
13328-473: The humanities generally study local traditions, through their history, literature, music, and arts, with an emphasis on understanding particular individuals, events, or eras. Finally, the social sciences have generally attempted to develop scientific methods to understand social phenomena in a generalizable way, though usually with methods distinct from those of the natural sciences. The anthropological social sciences often develop nuanced descriptions rather than
13464-523: The humanities. As a social science, the discipline often overlaps with sociology, psychology, anthropology, biology, political science, economics, and public policy, among others. From a humanities perspective, communication is concerned with rhetoric and persuasion (traditional graduate programs in communication studies trace their history to the rhetoricians of Ancient Greece ). The field applies to outside disciplines as well, including engineering, architecture, mathematics, and information science. Economics
13600-464: The ideas of Taylorism (also known as scientific management) and rapidly became a proponent, viewing it as a "social science of utopian potential." She was a prominent member of the Taylor Society for several decades. In 1917, the United States entered World War I . By this point, van Kleeck enjoyed "a well-deserved reputation as one of the nation's leading experts on women's employment." At
13736-760: The interaction of mental processes and behaviour, and of the overall processes of a system, and not simply the biological or neural processes themselves, though the subfield of neuropsychology combines the study of the actual neural processes with the study of the mental effects they have subjectively produced. Many people associate psychology with clinical psychology , which focuses on assessment and treatment of problems in living and psychopathology. In reality, psychology has myriad specialties including social psychology , developmental psychology , cognitive psychology , educational psychology , industrial-organizational psychology , mathematical psychology , neuropsychology, and quantitative analysis of behaviour. Psychology
13872-407: The interviewer's description of her statistical reports as "endless labor", van Kleeck replied "Really, I don't feel I've worked an hour in my whole life ... It is something I just love to do." Some years later, a young contemporary of van Kleeck's, Jacob Fisher, would describe her as having "the patrician carriage and speech, the imperious presence and the grande dame manner of the mistress of
14008-467: The investigation of ancient historical documents. The methods originally rooted in classical sociology and statistical mathematics have formed the basis for research in other disciplines, such as political science, media studies, and marketing and market research . Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A. , BA , A.B. or AB ; from the Latin baccalaureus artium , baccalaureus in artibus , or artium baccalaureus )
14144-562: The invisibility of women in sociological studies, analysis, and courses. In 1969, feminist sociologists challenged the discipline's androcentrism at the American Sociological Association's annual conference. This led to the founding of the organization Sociologists for Women in Society, and, eventually, a new sociology journal, Gender & Society . Today, the sociology of gender is considered to be one of
14280-521: The loss, she turned her focus to anti-nuclear activism and disarmament work. Van Kleeck also assisted in the founding of the Congress of American Women , an important organization in the post-war peace movement . Arguing that the organization should focus on women not just as homemakers but as workers, van Kleeck invited Mary McLeod Bethune to present to the organization on discrimination against African-American women. Although she never publicly joined
14416-548: The master's degree (post-nominal letters) in accordance with the new standard. When attaining a master level/graduate degree, it is still customary to use either drs. pre-nominally or MA/MSc post-nominally at the discretion of the holder. In the United Kingdom (excluding Scotland) and Ireland, the first degree course normally lasts three years, but nomenclature varies: 19th-century and later universities usually distinguish between arts and sciences subjects by awarding either
14552-453: The most prominent sub-fields in the discipline. New sociological sub-fields continue to appear — such as community studies , computational sociology , environmental sociology , network analysis, actor-network theory , gender studies, and a growing list, many of which are cross-disciplinary in nature. Additional applied or interdisciplinary fields related to the social sciences or are applied social sciences include: The origin of
14688-474: The political, cultural, economic, and social dimensions of their contexts. Communication is institutionalized under many different names at different universities, including communication , communication studies , speech communication , rhetorical studies , communication science , media studies , communication arts , mass communication , media ecology , and communication and media science . Communication studies integrate aspects of both social sciences and
14824-640: The powerful head of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America , asked van Kleeck to undertake a study of the casting industry in Hollywood , which he believed was rife with exploitation. Van Kleeck conducted the study, and, among other findings, recommended the creation of a centralized organization for casting extras and other small parts. Hays adopted this suggestion and the Central Casting Corporation
14960-446: The practice of Oxford and Cambridge by awarding BAs in all subjects, but have since changed to awarding BSc degrees in science subjects. At Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin the degree of MA can be claimed, usually twenty-one terms after matriculation , without any further study. For many centuries, the bachelor's degree was an intermediate step and was awarded for much of the work carried out in later times at secondary schools. The names of
15096-404: The province and the university for a three-year general degree to also be offered as an option. In many universities and colleges, Bachelor of Arts degrees are differentiated either as BA or as honours BA degrees. Honours programs require more education than non-honours programs, typically a specialization beyond the requirements of a BA, and can often be used as a gateway to a PhD program, bypassing
15232-417: The research of, and sometimes distinct in approach toward, the field. The term "social science" may refer either to the specific sciences of society established by thinkers such as Comte, Durkheim, Marx, and Weber, or more generally to all disciplines outside of "noble science" and arts . By the late 19th century, the academic social sciences were constituted of five fields: jurisprudence and amendment of
15368-439: The resulting report, but was rebuffed by Robert DeForest , the foundation's vice president. Alongside Eleanor Roosevelt , van Kleeck was also co-vice president of the Women's City Club of New York , which was founded in 1915. During this period, van Kleeck's output of labor studies and other articles was prodigious, and she often worked closely with the Women's Trade Union League (WTUL). For instance, she authored an article in
15504-474: The same recompense as men". The Women in Industry Service group produced a series of reports documenting wage disparities , unsafe working conditions , and discrimination against female workers, conducting investigations in 31 states. Their recommendations were often ignored, and at an October 1918 conference to discuss women's labor organized by van Kleeck, Secretary of Labor William Wilson declined to take action to address wage inequality. Van Kleeck made it
15640-419: The social sciences has been described as economic imperialism. Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positive judgement and well-developed wisdom. Education has as one of its fundamental aspects the imparting of culture from generation to generation (see socialization ). To educate means 'to draw out', from
15776-466: The social sciences is also reflected in other specialized encyclopedias. The term "social science" was coined in French by Mirabeau in 1767, before becoming a distinct conceptual field in the nineteenth century. Social science was influenced by positivism, focusing on knowledge based on actual positive sense experience and avoiding the negative; metaphysical speculation was avoided. Auguste Comte used
15912-426: The social sciences, uses methods and techniques that relate to the kinds of inquiries sought: primary sources such as historical documents, interviews, and official records, as well as secondary sources such as scholarly articles , are used in building and testing theories. Empirical methods include survey research, statistical analysis or econometrics , case studies , experiments, and model building. Psychology
16048-525: The survey can be traced back at least as early as the Domesday Book in 1086, while some scholars pinpoint the origin of demography to 1663 with the publication of John Graunt 's Natural and Political Observations upon the Bills of Mortality . Social research began most intentionally, however, with the positivist philosophy of science in the 19th century. In contemporary usage, "social research"
16184-399: The term science sociale to describe the field, taken from the ideas of Charles Fourier ; Comte also referred to the field as social physics . Following this period, five paths of development sprang forth in the social sciences, influenced by Comte in other fields. One route that was taken was the rise of social research. Large statistical surveys were undertaken in various parts of
16320-505: The theory of great powers and superpowers . Political science is methodologically diverse, although recent years have witnessed an upsurge in the use of the scientific method , that is, the proliferation of formal-deductive model building and quantitative hypothesis testing. Approaches to the discipline include rational choice , classical political philosophy, interpretivism , structuralism , and behaviouralism , realism , pluralism, and institutionalism . Political science, as one of
16456-461: The time. Van Kleeck also undertook graduate work in social economy at Columbia University during this time. She studied under the experienced labor economist Henry Rogers Seager and sociologists Franklin Giddings and Samuel McCune Lindsay, but never completed a doctoral degree. Van Kleeck gained support from the Russell Sage Foundation in 1907, shortly after its establishment, the start of
16592-520: The two women lived together for most of their later life, splitting their time evenly between the Netherlands and New York City each year and exchanging daily letters when apart. The historian Jacqueline Castledine characterizes their relationship as romantic , describing van Kleeck and Fleddérus as "women-committed women" in a time before lesbianism was acceptable in mainstream society. Such relationships, not unknown in urban communities of college-educated women, were called Boston marriages . In 1932, as
16728-423: The unit of analysis is the individual agent, such as a household or firm, and macroeconomics , where the unit of analysis is an economy as a whole. Another division of the subject distinguishes positive economics, which seeks to predict and explain economic phenomena, from normative economics , which orders choices and actions by some criterion; such orderings necessarily involve subjective value judgments. Since
16864-478: The word comes from the suffix -logy , which means "study of", derived from Ancient Greek, and the stem soci- , which is from the Latin word socius , meaning "companion", or society in general. Auguste Comte (1798–1857) coined the term sociology to describe a way to apply natural science principles and techniques to the social world in 1838. Comte endeavoured to unify history, psychology and economics through
17000-465: The words of Alchon. Van Kleeck died of heart failure on June 8, 1972, in Kingston , New York. She was 88. Social scientist Social science is one of the branches of science , devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology , the original "science of society", established in
17136-451: The years. I am a believer in political democracy, which is the essence of the United States of America. What interests me in my life is my work, for it was my unusual and blessed destiny to be involved with subjects of immense importance. Mary van Kleeck, in response to a 1957 suggestion that she write an autobiography In 1956, on the recommendation of Eleanor Flexner , van Kleeck began organizing her papers and turning them over to
17272-644: Was $ 1500 annually. She was instrumental in the passage of New York laws prohibiting long working hours in 1910 and 1915. Van Kleeck and the Sage Foundation published a series of books based on her research: Artificial Flower Makers (1913), Women in the Bookbinding Trade (1913), and Wages in the Millinery Trade (1914). In 1916, van Kleeck persuaded the Foundation to create the Division of Industrial Studies with her as its head. As director of
17408-495: Was based on a study of the Rocky Mountain Fuel Company , and argued that all industry should be socialized. Her next book, Creative America , was published in 1936 and opposed continued private control of the means of production , as well as supporting a "moderate form of collectivism ." Alchon writes that "for van Kleeck, Christian and Communist idealism were complementary, if not interchangeable." During
17544-581: Was born the next year. Really, I don't feel I've worked an hour in my whole life ... It is something I just love to do. Mary van Kleeck, interviewed by Helen Foster in 1926 A 1926 profile of van Kleeck in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle , focusing on her prodigy with mathematics and statistics, described her as "an unassuming woman who goes about her work in a quiet manner, who does it primarily because she loves it, and who thoroughly enjoys every minute of her existence." In response to
17680-557: Was developed and furthered economic knowledge as a hard science . The last path was the correlation of knowledge and social values ; the antipositivism and verstehen sociology of Max Weber firmly demanded this distinction. In this route, theory (description) and prescription were non-overlapping formal discussions of a subject. The foundation of social sciences in the West implies conditioned relationships between progressive and traditional spheres of knowledge. In some contexts, such as
17816-626: Was expected to lead the Bureau permanently, van Kleeck was called away to help care for her dying mother and resigned after a few weeks. Mary Anderson , her close friend and colleague, became its first long-term director instead. Van Kleeck resumed her work and research with the Russell Sage Foundation after World War I, once more becoming director of the Department of Industrial Studies. The foundation continued to perform in-depth studies of conditions for workers at workplaces such as
17952-522: Was later used as the basis for the groundbreaking Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 , which applied standards to workplaces throughout the country. After the war, van Kleeck's group became the United States Women's Bureau . Van Kleeck wrote the law enabling this transition in June 1920. On July 14, van Kleeck was appointed as the head of the new agency within the Department of Labor. Although she
18088-442: Was meant to describe general studies more broadly. This definition of liberal studies remains to this day. In Japan and the United States, Bachelor of Arts degrees were historically given only by public or private institutions and colleges. In Germany, university-level education usually happens in either a Universität (plural: Universitäten ) or a Fachhochschule (plural: Fachhochschulen ); both can be referred to as
18224-401: Was the valedictorian of her class at Flushing High School in New York City. She wrote in her valedictory address: We are living in an age of disputes, and by no means the least among them is the question of woman and her rights ... [those who defend women] make one great mistake—they bravely defend woman, but they forget that she needs no defense, they eloquently plead her release from
18360-639: Was the most effective way to protect labor rights. During the Great Depression , she became a prominent left-wing critic of the New Deal and American capitalism, advocating a radical agenda for social reformers and workers. Retiring from the Sage Foundation in 1948, van Kleeck ran for New York State Senate as a member of the American Labor Party , but lost the election and turned her focus to peace activism and nuclear disarmament. As
18496-437: Was used in almost all fields of study; other titles were used for legal studies ( meester , Dutch for master, abbreviated Mr. ) and engineering ( ingenieur , abbreviated Ir. for academic masters level or ING. for higher vocational bachelor's level). Those who had already started the doctorandus program could, on completing it, opt for the doctorandus degree (entitling them to use "drs." in front of their name) or could use
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