Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Note on citations in the text
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: the contexts of the Social Science Association
- Part I POLITICS
- Part II REFORM
- Part III SCIENCE
- Part IV DECLINE
- Conclusion: The Social Science Association and social knowledge
- Appendix I The founders of the Social Science Association, 29 July 1857
- Appendix II Social Science Association Congresses, 1857–1884
- Appendix III Presidents of the Social Science Congresses, 1857–1884
- Appendix IV Departmental presidents, 1857–1884
- Select bibliography
- Index
Conclusion: The Social Science Association and social knowledge
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Note on citations in the text
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction: the contexts of the Social Science Association
- Part I POLITICS
- Part II REFORM
- Part III SCIENCE
- Part IV DECLINE
- Conclusion: The Social Science Association and social knowledge
- Appendix I The founders of the Social Science Association, 29 July 1857
- Appendix II Social Science Association Congresses, 1857–1884
- Appendix III Presidents of the Social Science Congresses, 1857–1884
- Appendix IV Departmental presidents, 1857–1884
- Select bibliography
- Index
Summary
This book has tried to demonstrate the place of the Social Science Association in its age by uncovering and explaining its contributions to politics and social policy-making. The Association encapsulated the social concerns of a generation; attracted many of the leading figures of the period; linked together different political, administrative, and professional constituencies; sought to make social administration more efficient and more expert. At a time when formal politics were only just beginning to address social questions the Social Science Association provided information and guidance for legislators and the public and helped establish the permanent structures required to direct social development in the future. In a period making the transition towards a more popular politics, it was an open forum where politicians, predominantly from the Liberal Party, who had grown up in an enclosed political culture made contact with opinion outdoors. In a period before a formal civil service was constructed the Social Science Association provided government with experience, knowledge, and administrative capacity. It stood for the improvement and enhancement of the state's administrative structures rather than state intervention on humanitarian grounds or for its own sake: its interventionism was focused on the perfection of social administration rather than the promotion of social welfare. In that task its members did not react reflexively and empirically when evidence of problems or difficulties arose.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Science, Reform, and Politics in Victorian BritainThe Social Science Association 1857–1886, pp. 368 - 377Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2002