So what is Social Science?

I took this opportunity to familiarize myself with the literature on how social scientists address my area of interest: emergency management . Reinventing Public Administration: A Case Study of the Federal Emergency Management Agency by Saundra K. Schneider recounted the organizational reform at FEMA after some problematic incidents in the 1990s. It prompted me to ask the question: how was the 1990s review the same/different from the post-Hurricane Katrina criticism of FEMA? To this end there were several questions I wanted to ask, such as: how did the disaster responses compare pre/post the restructuring? But the question I was most drawn to was: is there something about the problems facing the agency that intrinsically makes them difficult (impossible?) to solve? Upon reading Knight/Luker, however, I’m not sure that that question can really be asked within the scope of social science research as they (and presumably many others) define it. My background in political science inclines me towards the theoretical/philosophical where the expectation was for well-reasoned and supported arguments, not conclusions drawn from data. Thus the most pressing question for me now is: what is the scope of the discipline commonly understood as the “Social Sciences” vis-à-vis what question can be asked and methods employed?

Schneider, S. K. (1998). Reinventing public administration: A case study of the federal emergency management agency. Public Administration Quarterly, 22(1), 35-57.