The Roles of Values in Social Enquiry

The Helsinki-Copenhagen Colloquium in Evidence in Social Enquiry is a series
of workshops that bring together philosophers of science and social
scientists to explore how social scientific data provides evidence for
claims about social phenomena, how social scientists justify their
interpretations and explanations, and how social scientific research can
serve as evidence for policy purposes. The series will especially, but not
exclusively, focus on so-called qualitative research. The aim is to start a
debate that creatively combines modern philosophy of science with reflective
understanding of actual social scientific research practices in order to
better understand the nature of social scientific knowledge.

The first workshop “The Role of Values in Social Enquiry” will discuss the
role of non-epistemic values – such as political, moral and social values –
in the production of social scientific knowledge. Rather than focusing on
the social role of the social scientist, the workshop will concentrate on
the research process itself. The two key questions for the workshop are: In
which ways can – and should – non-epistemic values influence the research
process? And what are the consequences of these influences for the
objectivity of the enquiry and its results? By focusing on these questions
the workshop will give us a better understanding of the meaning of the
concepts of evidence and objectivity in the context of social scientific
research.

Talks at the workshop:

Margareta Bertilsson (University of Copenhagen): Facts, Values, and
Pragmatist Concerns

Martyn Hammersley (The Open University): How Max Weber got it mostly right
about the role of values in social research

Catthrine Hasse (Aarhus University): Learning Cultural Values

Rasmus Helles (University of Copenhagen): ”So what do YOU think?" On the
epistemological consequences of the necessity to have opinions in policy
research

Klemens Kappel (University of Copenhagen): How and Why Social Science Should
Separate Facts and Values

Christopher Lloyd (Tampere and Jyväskylä Universities): Is social science
history the objective foundation for a political program? The place of
concepts and values of deep time, socio-biological potential, and human
flourishing in the global social democratic critique of capitalism project.

Kristina Rolin (University of Helsinki): Social Values in the Social
Sciences: A Case Study

Michael Root (University of Minnesota): Politics and Categories: The Role of
Population Surveys in the Design of Research in the Social Sciences


Päivi Seppälä (University of Helsinki): Historians as scholars and
historians as lawyers – moral responsibility and causal inferences

Malcolm Williams (Cardiff University): Situated Objectivity: Values and Realism

Julie Zahle (University of Copenhagen): Values and Participant Observation


The program will be available later.

Participation is free but registration is required. To register, please send
an email to Julie Zahle – [email protected] – no later than November 18.