Explaining the Social World: Approaches in the Social Sciences

We invite you to participate in a two-day workshop of the TLU Centre of Excellence in Life Course, Wellbeing, and Open Society Studies (TEHA), titled “Explaining the Social World: Approaches in the Social Sciences.”

The two-day workshop aims to bring together social scientists and philosophers of science to discuss the nature and practice of explanation as a research aim in the social sciences.

The social sciences seek to explain complex social phenomena. However, explanatory practices vary considerably across different disciplines and research traditions — from causal inference and formal modelling to interpretive, historical, and case-based approaches. This diversity raises important questions about the aims, limits, and standards of explanation in the social sciences.

The workshop consists of presentations addressing various aspects of explanation in the social sciences from methodological and philosophical perspectives. Presentations will be given by social scientists and philosophers of science from Tallinn University, the University of Tartu, the University of Helsinki, the University of Eastern Finland, and the University of Barcelona.

Programme

The workshop will be held in English.

Participation in the workshop is free of charge, but prior registration is required. Please register by 8 June HERE.

Workshop organisers: 

• Joonatan Nõgisto is a junior research fellow at Tallinn University School of Governance, Law and Society in Estonia. His main research interests include the theory of explanation, mechanism-based theorizing in the social sciences, and the governance of wicked problems. His PhD thesis examines the methodology of constitutive explanation in political science.
• Petri Ylikoski is a Professor of Sociology (Science and Technology Studies) at University of Helsinki. His research interests include theories of explanation and evidence, science studies, and social theory. His current research focuses on the foundations of mechanism-based social science, institutional epistemology, and the social consequences of artificial intelligence.

For further information:

joonatan.nogisto@tlu.ee
eva.valdna@tlu.ee