[Air-L] Interesting blogpost: why social sciences require "idle time"

[Marra, Monica]

I would like to recommend the reading of a thought-provoking blogpost about
how time constraints - or "publish or perish" approach - in
academic/research environments are detrimental to the quality of social
science research *in particular*. The author is dr. Madiha Tariq.

>From the beginning of the post:

" [...] The current academic environment leaves little room for patience.
Research must show immediate results and individuals must publish or
perish. [...] Yet much of what matters in the social sciences depends on
the opposite: unstructured, seemingly idle time.

The social sciences, more than hard sciences, have methodologically and
philosophically depended on forms of work that unfold slowly. Ethnographers
observe and absorb. Sociologists return to the same sites until patterns
emerge. These rhythms define scholarship that requires patience and
openness to the uneventful. The disappearance of extended time from the
university changes the texture of intellectual life. It narrows how we
think and what we are able to notice."

If interested, you can read the whole post at

https://shorturl.at/5N245

Regards,

Monica Marra


-- 
Dr. Monica Marra, technologist
INAF - OAS Bologna
via Gobetti 93/3
40129 Bologna, Italy
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Monica_Marra
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