Social Science for Public Good (Social Science for Public Good)

As we end our discussion of power, we look more practically at how power manifests in our everyday lives and how we might think about resistance to injustice within this understanding. We think through how social change practitioners engage with, mobilize, and build power in their efforts to build a better world. Having explored a number of theories of power, we look at how these theories might be part of a toolbox that advocates of a more just world can engage with to be more effective. Our guest scholar for this final conversation about power is Dr. Claire Cahen, Assistant Professor of Urban & Environmental Policy at Occidental College.

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Dr. Claire Cahen is an Assistant Professor of Urban & Environmental Policy at Occidental College. She received her B.A. from Pomona College and her Ph.D. in Earth and Environmental Sciences from the Graduate Center at the City University of New York. Her research centers on urban austerity, community development, labor, and racial justice and has been published in journals such as Race, Ethnicity and the City, Antipode, Labor Relations, and Housing Studies.

Here are a few pieces that might serve as an introduction to Dr. Cahen's research:

Cahen, C. (2023). After zombies: Notes on labor union and municipal renewal. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 41(4), 707-725.

Cahen, C., Schneider, J., & Saegert, S. (2019). Victories from Insurgency: Re‐Negotiating Housing, Community Control, and Citizenship at the Margins. Antipode, 51(5), 1416-1435.

Cahen, C. (2023). Anticolonial realism: The defensive governing strategy of a Black city in white space. Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City, 1-23.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

As we embark on our exploration of the imagination, we start by exploring just how we should conceptualize and talk about this phenomenon. We also begin to think through just how useful the imagination is. Our guest scholar this episode is Dr. Anna Abraham, E. Paul Torrance Professor in the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Georgia and the Director of the Torrance Center for Creativity and Talent Development, who guides us through these first steps on our journey.

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Dr. Anna Abraham studies the psychological and neurophysiological basis of creativity and other aspects of the human imagination. Her educational and professional training has been within the disciplines of psychology and neuroscience, and she has worked across a diverse range of academic institutions and departments the world over, all of which have informed her multidisciplinary focus. She is the Founding Editor of the Cambridge Elements in Creativity and Imagination, an innovative academic short book series from Cambridge University Press.

Within the Department of Educational Psychology, Professor Abraham serves as a primary faculty member in the Gifted & Creative Education program and as an affiliated faculty member in the Applied Cognition & Development program and the School Psychology program. She advises graduate students across all these three programs. She also collaborates on research projects with faculty and students in the Quantitative Methodology program.

Professor Abraham also directs the CREATIVITY & IMAGINATION LAB at UGA. Prospective students and collaborators can find information on current studies and opportunities within the detailed lab webpage.

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While her full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to her scholarship addressing the topic of imagination:

Abraham, A., & Bubic, A. (2015). Semantic memory as the root of imagination. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 325–325.

Abraham, A. (2020). The Cambridge Handbook of the Imagination. Cambridge University Press.

Abraham, A. (2024). The Creative Brain: Myths and Truths. MIT Press.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

In this episode, we continue our exploration of trust theory with a conversation about how we should understand political trust and trustworthiness. We look at how we might understand trust in this specific context. Our guest scholar is Dr. Margaret Levi, Professor of Political Science, Stanford University

Dr. Levi is also Senior Fellow, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, the former Sara Miller McCune Director and current Faculty Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences (CASBS), Senior Fellow of the Woods Institute, and co-director of Ethics, Society and Technology at Stanford University. Additionally, she is Jere L. Bacharach Professor Emerita of International Studies in the Department of Political Science at the University of Washington. She held the Chair in Politics, United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney, 2009-13. At the University of Washington she was director of the CHAOS (Comparative Historical Analysis of Organizations and States) Center and formerly the Harry Bridges Chair and Director of the Harry Bridges Center for Labor Studies.

Levi is the author or coauthor of numerous articles and six books, including Of Rule and Revenue (University of California Press, 1988); Consent, Dissent, and Patriotism (Cambridge University Press, 1997); Analytic Narratives (Princeton University Press, 1998); Cooperation Without Trust? (Russell Sage, 2005), In the Interest of Others (Princeton, 2013), and A Moral Political Economy (Cambridge, 2021). She explores how organizations and governments provoke member willingness to act beyond material interest.

Professor Levi has written extensively on trust, but these publications provide a useful introduction to her scholarship addressing the topic:

Levi, M., & Stoker, L. (2000). Political trust and trustworthiness. Annual review of political science, 3(1), 475-507.

Levi, M. (2022). Trustworthy Government: The Obligations of Government & the Responsibilities of the Governed. Daedalus, 151(4), 215–233.
 

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

In this episode, we focus on how the narrative imagination helps us make sense of the world. Additionally, we dig into the connection between story and imagination. Our guest scholar in this episode is Dr. Richard Kearney, Charles B. Seelig Chair of Philosophy at Boston College

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Richard Kearney holds the Charles B. Seelig Chair of Philosophy at Boston College and has served as a Visiting Professor at University College Dublin, the University of Paris (Sorbonne), the Australian Catholic University and the University of Nice.

He is the author of over 26 books on European philosophy and literature (including three novels and a volume of poetry) and has edited or co-edited 23 more. His most recent publications include Anatheism (2012), Reimagining the Sacred (2015), Carnal Hermeneutics (2015), Twinsome Minds: An Act of Double Remembrance (2018), Touch: Recovering Our Most Vital Sense (2021), Thinking Film: Philosophy at the Movies (ed. Richard Kearney and M.E. Littlejohn) (2023).

He was formerly a member of the Arts Council of Ireland, the Higher Education Authority of Ireland and chairman of the Irish School of Film at University College Dublin. He is also a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

As a public intellectual in Ireland, he was involved in drafting a number of proposals for a Northern Irish peace agreement (1983, 1993, 1995).

He has presented five series on culture and philosophy for Irish and British television and broadcast extensively on the European media.

He is currently international director of the Guestbook Project–Hosting the Stranger: Between Hostility and Hospitality.

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While his full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic of imagination:

Kearney, R. (2002). The wake of imagination. Routledge.

Kearney, R. (2002). On stories. Routledge.

Littlejohn, M. E. (Ed.). (2020). Imagination Now: A Richard Kearney Reader. Rowman & Littlefield.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the ⁠Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance⁠ and ⁠VT Publishing⁠ intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com

In this episode, we introduce two new conceptualizations of power. First, we look at the urban regime framework, which suggests that groups (regimes) come together to govern collaboratively around collective interests. Second, we discuss democratic understandings of power, which suggests that power should be shared and distributed. Dr. Max Stephens, Professor of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech, joins us for the conversation and walks us through these complex theories.

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Max Stephenson, Jr. currently serves as a Professor of Public and International Affairs and the Director of the Institute for Policy and Governance at Virginia Tech. His research and teaching interests include civil society and democratic theory, social change processes, international development, human rights and refugees and peacebuilding. He is the author or editor of thirteen books or monographs and more than 80 refereed articles and book chapters. He has also authored more than 400 commentaries addressing U.S. and international politics.

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Dr. Stephenson has written widely on how power and agency interact. You can read more of his thoughts here on Soundings.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the ⁠Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance⁠ and ⁠VT Publishing⁠ intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

In this episode, we explore the role of imagination in social movements and the ongoing fight for justice. We investigate both how the imagination helps us think of how the world might be better and identify the problems of the moment. Our guest scholar in this episode is Dr. Michele Moody-Adams, Joseph Straus Professor of Political Philosophy and Legal Theory at Columbia University.

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Michele Moody-Adams is Joseph Straus Professor of Political Philosophy and Legal Theory at Columbia University, where she served as Dean of Columbia College and Vice President for Undergraduate Education from 2009-2011. Before Columbia, she taught at Cornell University, where she was Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education and Director of the Program on Ethics and Public Life. She has also taught at Wellesley College, the University of Rochester, and Indiana University, where she served as Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education. 

She has published on equality and social justice, moral psychology and the virtues, moral objectivity and moral relativism, and the philosophical implications of gender and race.  She is the author of Making Space for Justice: Social Movements, Collective Imagination and Political Hope, published in 2022.  She is also the author of a widely cited book on moral relativism, Fieldwork in Familiar Places: Morality, Culture and Philosophy, and a co-author on the multi-author work Against Happiness (May 2023).  Her current work also includes articles on academic freedom, equal educational opportunity, democratic disagreement, and what constitutes an epistemically and morally defensible understanding of history. A special focus of her work on democracy is the connection between democracy and the civic art and architecture of remembrance.

---While her full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to her scholarship addressing the topic of imagination and justice:

Moody-Adams, M. (2022). Making Space for Justice: Social Movements, Collective Imagination, and Political Hope. Columbia University Press.

Moody-Adams, M. (2015). The enigma of forgiveness. The Journal of Value Inquiry, 49, 161-180.

Moody-Adams, M. M. (2018). Democratic conflict and the political morality of compromise. Nomos, 59, 186-219.

Moody-Adams, M. M. (2017). Moral progress and human agency. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, 20, 153-168.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the ⁠Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance⁠ and ⁠VT Publishing⁠ intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com

In this episode, we focus on how our imaginations are essential to moral decision-making and help us evaluate the possible outcomes of our actions. As part of this, we also discuss the shortcomings of rigid moral systems and the necessity of maintaining humility. Our guest scholar in this episode is Dr. Mark Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Philip H. Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Emeritus at the University of Oregon.

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Dr. Mark L. Johnson is currently Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Philip H. Knight Professor of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Emeritus. Johnson has authored numerous articles and book chapters on a broad range of topics including philosophy of language, metaphor theory, aesthetics, recent moral theory, ethical naturalism, philosophy and cognitive science, embodied cognition, philosophical psychology, and American pragmatist philosophy.

Some of his notable publications include Mind in Nature: John Dewey, Cognitive Science, and a Naturalistic Philosophy for Living (MIT Press, 2023) and, with George Lakoff, of Metaphors We Live By (University of Chicago Press, [1980] 2003). Notably for our study of imagination are his books Moral Imagination: Implications of Cognitive Science for Ethics (1993), and The Body in the Mind: The Bodily Basis of Meaning, Imagination, and Reason (1987).

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While his full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic of imagination:

Johnson, M. (1993). Moral imagination : implications of cognitive science for ethics. University of Chicago Press.

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press. 

Johnson, M. (2015). Morality for Humans: Ethical Understanding from the Perspective of Cognitive Science. The University of Chicago Press. Copy citation to clipboard

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the ⁠Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance⁠ and ⁠VT Publishing⁠ intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com

Join cohosts Amin Farzaneh and Brad Stephens as they explore the imagination as both a fascinating phenomenon/concept and an absolute necessity for social change. They will talk with some of the leading scholars in the field to explore the nuances of this most human of abilities.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the ⁠Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance⁠ and ⁠VT Publishing⁠ intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

In this episode, we look into how our imagination develops over the course of our lives, starting as children. This includes thinking through how education influences our imaginative capacity. Our guest scholar in this episode is Dr. Paul Harris, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Education at Harvard University.

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Dr. Paul Harris is interested in the early development of cognition, emotion, and imagination. After studying psychology at the University of Sussex and the University of Oxford, he taught at the University of Lancaster, the Free University of Amsterdam, and the London School of Economics. In 1980, he moved to Oxford where he became a professor of developmental psychology and fellow of St John's College.

During the 1980s, his research focused primarily on children’s understanding of mental states, including emotion. The findings were gathered together in a book published in 1989, Children and Emotion (translated into seven European languages) as well as two edited volumes (Developing Theories of Mind and Children’s Understanding of Emotion). In the 1990s, he studied the development of pretend play and imagination, culminating in a book, The Work of the Imagination, published in 2000 and an edited volume (Imagining the Impossible: Magical, Scientific and Religious thinking in Children). In 2001, he migrated to Harvard University, where he holds the Victor S. Thomas Professorship of Education

Currently, he is studying how far children rely on their own first-hand observation or, alternatively, trust what other people tell them—especially when they try to understand a domain of knowledge in which first-hand observation is difficult. His latest book, Trusting What You’re Told: How Children Learn from Others, synthesizes a broad range of findings on this topic. It has received the Eleanor Maccoby Book Award from the American Psychological Association and the Cognitive Development Society Book Award.

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While his full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic of imagination:

Harris, P. L. (2000). The work of the imagination. Blackwell Publishing.

Harris, P. L. (2022). Children's imagination. Cambridge University Press.

Harris, P. L. (2021). Early constraints on the imagination: The realism of young children. Child Development, 92(2), 466-483.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the ⁠Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance⁠ and ⁠VT Publishing⁠ intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com

We continue to explore the concept of power by asking how neoliberalism might be both informing our understanding of power and changing how it manifests. Combining a number of insights from previous guests, we wade into the myriad ways power manifests in our neoliberal world and why we need to consider the many different kinds of power both distinctly and collectively. We were honored to be led in this conversation by Dr. Wendy Brown, UPS Foundation Professor, School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study.

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Dr. Wendy Brown is a political theorist who works across the history of political thought, political economy, Continental philosophy, cultural theory, and critical legal theory. Brown investigates the subterranean powers shaping contemporary Euroatlantic polities, with particular attention to the political identities, subjectivities, and expressions they spawn. She is the author or co-author of a dozen books, including States of Injury: Power and Freedom in Late Modernity; Regulating Aversion: Tolerance in the Age of Identity and Empire; Walled States, Waning Sovereignty; Undoing the Demos: Neoliberalism’s Stealth Revolution; and In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West. Across her work, Brown aims to illuminate powers unique to our era and the predicaments they generate for democratic thought and practice.

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While it would be impossible to cite all of her influential work on power here, the publications below provide a useful starting point for her scholarship:

Brown, W. (2020). States of injury: Power and freedom in late modernity. Princeton University Press.

Brown, W. (2015). Undoing the demos: Neoliberalism's stealth revolution. Mit Press.

Brown, W. (2006). American nightmare: Neoliberalism, neoconservatism, and de-democratization. Political theory, 34(6), 690-714.

Brown, W. (2003). Neo-liberalism and the end of liberal democracy. Theory & event, 7(1).

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com

In this episode, we explore how the imagination is used in developing rhetorical strategies. We talk about how rhetoric is based on our values and our ability to think about future possibilities. Our guest scholar in this episode is Dr. Carolyn Commer, Associate Professor in the Department of English at Virginia Tech and Director of the Rhetoric and Writing PhD program.

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Carolyn Commer is an Associate Professor in the Department of English at Virginia Tech where she researches the rhetoric of higher education policy, histories of rhetoric, and writing pedagogy. She is also the ⁠Director of the Rhetoric and Writing PhD program⁠.

She has her M.A. in Liberal Arts from ⁠St. John’s College, Annapolis⁠, and her Ph.D. in Rhetoric at ⁠Carnegie Mellon University⁠. She currently teach courses in the Department of English at ⁠Virginia Tech⁠ on ancient and modern histories of rhetoric, critical theory, and professional and technical writing. Her book, ⁠Championing a Public Good: A Call to Advocate for Higher Education⁠, draws from the public record to demonstrate a common set of arguments, metaphors, and rhetorical frames that higher education leaders can use to champion the public value of universities and colleges.

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While her full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to her scholarship addressing the topic of imagination and rhetoric:

Commer, C. D. (2024). Championing a Public Good: A Call to Advocate for Higher Education. Penn State Press.

Commer, C. D. (2023). Rhetorical Histories in Motu: On Teaching the Octalogs. Journal for the History of Rhetoric, 26(2), 255-266.

Commer, C. D. (2021). Rivaling the rhetoric of accountability: dissociation as an advocacy strategy in US higher education policy. Argumentation and Advocacy, 57(1), 18-36.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the ⁠⁠Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠VT Publishing⁠⁠ intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com

We begin our exploration of trust theory in this episode with a conversation about how that construct might be defined and operationalized. Our guest scholar is Dr. Guido Möllering, the Director of the Reinhard Mohn Institute of Management at Witten/Herdecke University, Germany, where he holds the Reinhard Mohn Endowed Chair of Management. 

Professor Möllering earned his Ph.D. in Management Studies at the University of Cambridge, UK, and his habilitation (postdoctoral degree, venia legendi) in Business Administration at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. His principal research interests include inter-organizational relationships, organizational fields, and trust. He has published several books, including Trust: Reason, Routine, Reflexivity (2006), and articles in leading journals, including Organization Science and the Journal of International Business Studies. He now serves as a Senior Editor of Organization Studies and previously served as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Trust Research. 

Professor Möllering's work on trust is large, but these publications provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Mollering, G. (2006). Trust: Reason, routine, reflexivity. Emerald Group Publishing.

Möllering, G. (2005). The trust/control duality: An integrative perspective on positive expectations of others. International Sociology, 20(3), 283-305.

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com

In this episode, we look into how we can learn from intentionally guiding our imagination while also looking into how much of the imagination operates outside of our conscious control. We also continue to explore the limits of imagination and how it can be used for both good and ill. Our guest scholar in this episode is Dr. Tamar Gendler, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science at Yale University.

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Dr. Tamar Szabó Gendler is Yale’s Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Vincent J. Scully Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science. She holds a BA summa cum laude with Distinction in Humanities and in Mathematics-&-Philosophy from Yale University (1987) and a PhD in Philosophy from Harvard University (1996). After teaching at Syracuse and Cornell Universities for nearly a decade, she returned to Yale in 2006 as Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Cognitive Science Program. In 2009-10, supported by the Mellon Foundation’s New Directions program, she spent a year as a full-time student at Yale doing coursework in psychology, neuroscience, and statistics. In 2010, she was appointed Chair of the Yale philosophy department, becoming the first woman chair in the department’s two-century history. In 2013, she was appointed Deputy Provost for Humanities and Initiatives, a position she held until she assumed her current role in 2014. As FAS Dean, Gendler has focused on building excellence and collaboration within and across traditional disciplinary boundaries throughout the divisions in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and across the university more broadly.

Gendler’s academic research brings together the techniques of traditional Anglo-American philosophy with empirical work from psychology and other social sciences; her interests include the relation between imagination and belief, the contrast between rational and non-rational persuasion, and the role of habits in shaping behavior and judgment. Many of these issues are explored in her Open Yale course, Philosophy and the Science of Human Nature. She also has interests in education policy and practice, and worked for several years after she graduated from Yale as an education policy analyst at the RAND Corporation.

Gendler is the author of Intuition, Imagination, and Philosophical Methodology (Oxford, 2013), Thought Experiments: On the Powers and Limits of Imaginary Cases (Routledge, 2000), and co-editor of The Elements of Philosophy (Oxford 2008), Perceptual Experience (Oxford, 2006), Conceivability and Possibility (Oxford 2002), and the Oxford Handbook of Philosophical Methodology (Oxford 2016).

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While her full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to her scholarship addressing the topic of imagination:

Gendler, T. S. (2014). Thought experiment: On the powers and limits of imaginary cases. Routledge.

Gendler, T. S. (2000). The puzzle of imaginative resistance. The Journal of Philosophy, 97(2), 55-81.

Gendler, T. S., & Hawthorne, J. (Eds.). (2002). Conceivability and possibility. Clarendon Press.

Liao, S. Y., & Gendler, T. (2019). Imagination. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com

In this episode, we start our exploration of power. We seek to introduce the concept and begin to frame how individuals interested in social change might start to think about power in their own work. To explore how power operates in our world, we look at how revolutionary movements of the past have both confronted and utilized power. Our guest scholar for this conversation is Dr. Michael Hardt, Professor of Literature at Duke University.

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Michael Hardt's writings explore the new forms of domination in the contemporary world as well as the social movements and other forces of liberation that resist them. In the Empire trilogy -- Empire (2000), Multitude (2004), and Commonwealth (2009) -- he and Antonio Negri investigate the political, legal, economic, and social aspects of globalization. They also study the political and economic alternatives that could lead to a more democratic world. Their pamphlet Declaration (2012) attempts to articulate the significance of the encampments and occupations that began in 2011, from Tahrir Square to Zuccotti Park, and to recognize the primary challenges faced by emerging democratic social movements today.

His new book, The Subversive Seventies, focuses on how the revolutionary movements of the 1970s confronted and sought to change power structures. While his work on power is extensive, the publications below provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Hardt, M. (2023). The subversive seventies. Oxford University Press. 

Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2000). Empire. Harvard University Press.

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

As we continue our exploration, we spend some time this week thinking about how we use our imaginations and what limits we might place upon them. We also delve into whether we should think of our imagination as a skill. Our guest scholar in this episode is Dr. Amy Kind, Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy & Director of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies at Claremont McKenna College.

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Dr. Amy Kind, the Russell K. Pitzer Professor of Philosophy, joined the Claremont McKenna College faculty in 1997. Currently the Director of the Gould Center for Humanistic Studies, she has previously served as Chair of the Department of Philosophy (2009 - 2012) and Associate Dean of the Faculty (2005 - 2008). At CMC, she teaches classes in philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and logic. Her research interests lie broadly in the philosophy of mind, though most of her published work has concerned issues relating either to imagination or to phenomenal consciousness.  Her most recent publications include What is Consciousness? A Debate (co-authored with Daniel Stoljar) and Imagination and Creative Thinking.  She has edited or co-edited four volumes: Epistemic Uses of Imagination (co-edited with Christopher Badura), Knowledge Through Imagination (co-edited with Peter Kung), The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination, and Philosophy of Mind in the Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries. In 2023-4, she will serve as Vice President of the Pacific Division of the American Philosophical Association, to be followed by a term as President in 2024-5.

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While her full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to her scholarship addressing the topic of imagination:

Kind, A. (2016). The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Imagination (1st ed.). Routledge.

Kind, A. (2016). Imagining under constraints. Knowledge through imagination, 145-59.

Kind, A. (2018). How imagination gives rise to knowledge. Perceptual imagination and perceptual memory, 227-46.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

We continue our exploration of trust theory in this episode with a conversation about what constitutes a violation of trust and how trust might be repaired following such a violation. Our guest scholar is Dr. Edward Tomlinson, Professor of Management in the Chambers College of Business & Economics at West Virginia University.

Dr. Tomlinson's research is widespread but includes examinations of...

-Building and Repairing Trust in Professional Work Relationships
-Negotiation Strategies and Skills
-Compensation System Design and Administration
-Avoiding Deviant Workplace Behavior

His publications have appeared in several of the most prestigious management journals, including Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychology, and Journal of Management. He co-edited (with Ron Burke and Cary Cooper) a book entitled, Crime and corruption in organizations: Why it happens and what to do about it. He also has a forthcoming book entitled, Developing and managing a total compensation system.

Professor Tomlinson's portfolio of work on trust is large and varied, but these publications provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Tomlinson, E. C., & Mryer, R. C. (2009). The role of causal attribution dimensions in trust repair. Academy of management review, 34(1), 85-104.

Tomlinson, E. C., Dineen, B. R., & Lewicki, R. J. (2004). The road to reconciliation: Antecedents of victim willingness to reconcile following a broken promise. Journal of management, 30(2), 165-187.

Tomlinson, E. C., & Lewicki, R. J. (2006). Managing distrust in intractable conflicts. Conflict Resolution Quarterly, 24(2), 219-228.Chicago
 

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

We finish our exploration of trust theory in this episode with a conversation about what the future of trust research might look like and how we might think about applying these theorizations in our daily lives. Our guest scholar is Dr. Joe Hamm, Associate Professor of Criminal Justice and Environmental Science at Michigan State University.

Joe's program of research lies at the nexus of governance and the public, where he investigates what trust is, how best to appropriately measure it, and its connection to "outcomes" like cooperation and compliance. Joe works closely with a variety of governance organizations, including police agencies, court systems, natural resource authorities, public health departments, and a variety of other state and federal entities, with the overarching goal of contributing to a cross-boundary social science of trust.

Joe serves as Graduate Program Director for the MSU Environmental Science and Policy Program; Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Trust Research; and on the editorial boards of Psychology, Public Policy, and Law and Law and Human Behavior.

Professor Hamm's portfolio of work on trust is large and varied, but these publications provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Hamm, J. A., Trinkner, R., & Carr, J. D. (2017). Fair process, trust, and cooperation: Moving toward an integrated framework of police legitimacy. Criminal justice and behavior, 44(9), 1183-1212.

Hamm, J. A., Smidt, C., & Mayer, R. C. (2019). Understanding the psychological nature and mechanisms of political trust. PloS one, 14(5), e0215835.

PytlikZillig, L. M., Hamm, J. A., Shockley, E., Herian, M. N., Neal, T. M., Kimbrough, C. D., ... & Bornstein, B. H. (2016). The dimensionality of trust-relevant constructs in four institutional domains: Results from confirmatory factor analyses. Journal of Trust Research, 6(2), 111-150.
 

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

We continue our exploration of trust theory in this episode with a conversation about the different types of trust and how they might interact with one another to form a trust ecology. Our guest scholar is Dr. Marc Stern, Professor in the Department of Forest Resources and Environmental Conservation at Virginia Tech

Dr. Stern's research focuses on human behavior within the contexts of environmental conflicts, natural resources planning and management, and environmental education and communication. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and reports, and has won multiple research and teaching awards. His most recent book, Social Science Theory for Environmental Sustainability: A Practical Guide, published by Oxford University Press, translates social science theory and knowledge for everyday use by people interested in working on environmental problems. He teaches undergraduate courses in Environmental Education and Interpretation and graduate courses in Social Science Research Methods and Sustainability.

Working with several colleagues, he has developed a typology of trust in the context of natural resource management and has suggested a trust ecology framework for how these types interact and buffer one another.

Professor Stern's portfolio of work on trust and collaborative governance is large and varied, but these publications provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Stern, M. J., & Coleman, K. J. (2015). The multidimensionality of trust: Applications in collaborative natural resource management. Society & Natural Resources, 28(2), 117-132.

Stern, M. J., & Baird, T. D. (2015). Trust ecology and the resilience of natural resource management institutions. Ecology and Society, 20(2).
 

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

In this episode, we start to add nuance to our understanding of power by investigating the three dimensions of power, as identified by Dr. Steven Lukes. Dr. Lukes, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at New York University, joins us for the conversation and walks us through his understanding of decision-making power, agenda-setting power, and ideological power. He encourages us to look more deeply into how pervasive and nuanced power can be.

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Dr. Steven Lukes is the author of numerous books and articles about political and social theory. Currently, he is a professor emeritus of sociology at New York University. He was formerly a fellow in politics and sociology at Balliol College, Oxford. He was then, in turn, a professor of political and social theory at the European University Institute, Florence, of  moral philosophy at the University of Siena and of sociology at the London School of Economics.

His interests include political sociology, focusing on the study of power; political theory and philosophy; Marxism and other socialist traditions; philosophy of the social sciences; the history of ideas, in particular the political thought of Condorcet; political humour and satire; and, most recently, the sociology of morals, his current preoccupation.

Lukes’s best-known, still controversial academic theory is his so-called ‘radical’ view of power. It can be simply stated. It claims there are three dimensions of power. The first is overt power, typically exhibited in the presence of conflict in decision-making situations, where power consists in winning, that is prevailing over another or others. The second is covert power, consisting in control over what gets decided, by ignoring or deflecting existing grievances. And the third is the power to shape desires and beliefs, thereby averting both conflict and grievances. It is the most hidden from view—the least accessible to observation by social actors and observers alike. It can be at work, despite apparent consensus between the powerful and the powerless.

He is a member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Sociology and a fellow of the British Academy.

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Dr. Lukes has written widely on power from a number of perspectives, but these publications provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Lukes, S. (2021). Power: A radical view. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Lukes, S. (Ed.). (1986). Power (Vol. 2). NYU Press.

Lukes, S. (2005). Power and the Battle for Hearts and Minds. Millennium, 33(3), 477-493.

Lukes, S. (2006). Individualism. ECPr Press.

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

We continue our exploration of trust theory in this episode with a conversation about how trust and trustworthiness are connected, but distinct. Our guest scholar is Dr. Roger Mayer, Professor of Management, Innovation & Entrepreneurship at North Carolina State University.

Dr. Mayer’s research is focused on trust, as well as employee decision-making, attitudes, and effectiveness. A leading scholar on trust in organizations, his research has been published in many premiere scholarly journals. It has been cited tens of thousands of times in the published literature across a wide variety of fields.

He authored a theory of trust often referred to as the ABI theory with David Schoorman and James Davis which was published in Academy of Management Review (AMR) to wide acclaim. His recent research with colleagues finds that this theory helps clarify our understanding of such crucial current societal issues as how much a person trusts the federal government, and how to build police-public trust.

Professor Mayer's work on trust is large, but these publications provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic:

Mayer, R. C., Davis, J. H., & Schoorman, F. D. (1995). An integrative model of organizational trust. Academy of management review, 20(3), 709-734.

Mayer, R. C., & Gavin, M. B. (2005). Trust in management and performance: Who minds the shop while the employees watch the boss?. Academy of management journal, 48(5), 874-888.
 

The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: purple-planet.com

Meet Yugasha and Brad, our two cohosts, and learn a little about what to expect on the new Social Science for Public Good podcast!

Music: https://www.purple-planet.com

In this special bonus episode, we seek to bring together the subjects of our first two arcs, trust and power, and look at how they might concretely manifest in the bid to create social change. We are guided through this discussion by Dr. Lawrence Susskind, Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Dr. Susskind shares how both trust and power play out in his work to build collaborative problem-solving processes and how he approaches both concepts.

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Dr. Lawrence Susskind is the Ford Professor of Urban and Environmental Planning and his research interests focus on the theory and practice of negotiation and dispute resolution, the practice of public engagement in local decision-making, cybersecurity for critical urban infrastructure, entrepreneurial negotiation, global environmental treaty-making, the resolution of science-intensive policy disputes, renewable energy policy, water equity in older American cities, climate change adaptation, socially-responsible real estate development and the land claims of Indigenous Peoples. Professor Susskind is the author or co-author of twenty books including, most recently, Environmental Problem-Solving (Anthem), Managing Climate Risks in Coastal Communities: Strategies for Engagement, Readiness and Adaptation (Anthem), the second edition of Environmental Diplomacy (Oxford Press), Good for You, Great for Me (Public Affairs Press), Water Diplomacy (Resources for the Future), Built to Win (Harvard Business School Publishing), Multiparty Negotiation (Sage), Breaking Robert's Rules (Oxford), The Consensus Building Handbook (Sage), and Dealing with An Angry Public (Free Press).

Professor Susskind is Director of the MIT Science Impact Collaborative (scienceimpact.mit.edu). He is Founder of the Consensus Building Institute, a Cambridge-based not-for-profit company that provides mediation services in complex resource management disputes around the world. He also was one of the Co-founders of the interuniversity Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, where he now directs the MIT-Harvard Public Disputes Program, serves as Vice Chair for Instruction, and leads PON’s Master Classes in Negotiation. He is the recipient of ACSP’s prestigious Educator of the Year Award and recipient of MIT’s Award for Digital Instruction. MIT Administration recently named Professor Susskind as MIT's representative to the New America Foundation's Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN).

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While Dr. Susskind's CV is beyond extensive, these pieces might help the reader understand how he grapples with trust and power:

Susskind, L., & Field, P. (1996). Dealing with an angry public: The mutual gains approach to resolving disputes. Simon and Schuster.

Susskind, L. E., McKearnen, S., & Thomas-Lamar, J. (1999). The consensus building handbook: A comprehensive guide to reaching agreement. Sage publications.

Susskind, L. E., & Ali, S. H. (2014). Environmental diplomacy: Negotiating more effective global agreements. Oxford University Press.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com

This week, we delve into how the influential theorist Michel Foucault challenged and changed our conceptions of power. We also begin to plumb how a feminist understanding of power can help inform our efforts to perpetuate social change. Our guest scholar for this conversation is Dr. Amy Allen, Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State University, who helps us deepen our understanding of the inescapability and essential neutrality of power.

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Dr. Amy Allen is the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Advancement and Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Penn State University. Her work engages with 20th-century Continental Philosophy, Critical Theory, Feminist Theory, and Social and Political Theory. She completed her PhD in philosophy at Northwestern University. Before joining Penn State, she taught philosophy at Grinnell College, Dartmouth College, and the University of Edinburgh.

She has served in a number of prominent positions such as sitting on the executive committee of the eastern division of the American Philosophical Association. She has been an executive co-director of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy, a co-editor-in-chief of Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, and editor of the series New Directions in Critical Theory published by Columbia University Press.

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While her full catalog of articles and books is far too long to list here, the publications below provide a useful introduction to his scholarship addressing the topic of power:

Allen, A. (2018). The power of feminist theory. Routledge.

Allen, A. (2007). The politics of our selves: Power, autonomy, and gender in contemporary critical theory. Columbia University Press.

Allen, A. (1998). Rethinking power. Hypatia, 13(1), 21-40.

Allen, A. (2002). Power, subjectivity, and agency: Between Arendt and Foucault. International journal of philosophical studies, 10(2), 131-149.

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The Social Science for Public Good Podcast is a project of the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and VT Publishing intended to make social science theories accessible and available to individuals and organizations seeking to promote social change.

Music: Purple-planet.com