Social sciences and the noun problem

By Michael Billig. The issue for social scientists is not just that we use jargon, but the nature of the jargon we favour, suggests Michael Billig. More than 40 years ago, Stanislav Andreski, a professor of sociology at Reading University, published an ill-tempered book, complaining how poorly his fellow social scientists wrote. He accused them of lacking talent, of 'cretinisation'. Andreski did not make many friends. Today, academic life is yet harsher, with the pressures to publish far stronger than they ever were. We lack time to craft the elegant phrase as we churn out paper after paper. If present conditions are producing bad, hasty writing across the campus, then today's linguistic habits are particularly harmful for the social sciences. Read more...