The Study of the Social Sciences in Developing Societies: Towards an Adequate Conceptualization of Relevance

Abstract

For the last 100 years or so, there has been a strong awareness of a lack of fit between the western social sciences and non-western realities. Lacking, however, is the conceptualization of irrelevance. What is meant, at a conceptual level, by irrelevance has rarely been the subject of discussion. As a result, the calls for more relevant social science, often reflected in moves to decolonize, indigenize, or nationalize the social sciences, are equally incoherent. This is because the logical opposite of irrelevance, that is relevance, also lacks conceptualization. In this article, the author elaborates what he understands to be the central features of irrelevance and relevance, provides a preliminary conceptualization of relevance by way of a typology and discusses the nature of relevant social science.