1. Interdisciplinary Tower of Babal.
- Author
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Riggs, Fred W.
- Subjects
- *
SOCIAL sciences , *TERMS & phrases , *SOCIOLOGY , *CONFERENCES & conventions , *POLITICAL science - Abstract
The article presents information on confusion over various terms in social sciences. Several years ago the author participated in an interdisciplinary panel on "development," at an international sociological congress. Some persuasive and sharply analytic papers were presented, but very little meeting of minds took place simply because the participants had different things in mind when they talked about development. In that context it did little good to explain the fact that development is a polyseme and hence communication between the panelists could be achieved only after people had learned which sense of this word was intended by each scholar using it. Moreover, the effort to prescribe a correct meaning of development led only to contention and disagreement, not cumulation of knowledge or enhanced understanding. The meanings of word "nation" also vary with the disciplines. Political scientists usually have something like the state in mind and they may use the compound, "nation-state," to help remove the ambiguities in both words. By contrast, anthropologists and sociologists are more likely to use "nation" in an ethnic sense, applying it to communities that share a sense of common ancestry and make political claims, typically for control of a single state. In this sense it is not the French "state" that builds the French nation, but rather the French nation that created the state.
- Published
- 1990