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On Social Practice: Archeology of Science and Hope

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Global Frontiers of Social Development in Theory and Practice

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Abstract

This chapter posits social practice as an anti-essentialisr professional disciplinarity—within the social-scientific realm—to replace antiquated vocabularies of social welfare, social work, and social policy. Foueauldian “archeology” is used as a guiding framework to delineate and define the contours of transformative science that are embedded in knowledge, values, and social practices. “The science of man,” David Hume wrote, “Is the only solid foundation for the other sciences” ([1739] 1961: xiii). The search for method has yielded interventions and practices to relate to the mysteries of human nature and its vicissitudes. The Enlightenment “laid the basis for nothing less than a fully ‘secular’ theodicy: a program for analyzing and remedying the evils that befall man in society” (Becker, 1968: 31).

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  1. Brij Mohan
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© 2015 Brij Mohan

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Mohan, B. (2015). On Social Practice: Archeology of Science and Hope. In: Mohan, B. (eds) Global Frontiers of Social Development in Theory and Practice. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137460714_1

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