Scientists in the Swamp: Narrowing the Language-Practice Gap in Community Psychology
Author(s)
Hess, Jacob Z.
Abstract
As a confluence of unique values and activities, the collective practice of community psychology is difficult to characterize in a simple way. This paper proposes a potential step forward by resituating questions of disciplinary language and identity within a current philosophical discourse where the nature of social science itself remains sharply contested. This suggests shifting attention away from “should we be a science?” to “what kind of science might we be after all?”; in turn, alternative languages may be re-cast as legitimate contributors to a kind of science more authentic to human communities–even a viable “science in the swamp.” One such language-philosophical hermeneutics–is presented as a particularly valuable supplement to traditional science. Illustrations highlight ways that hermeneutics may advance the formal language of the field towards a closer fit of what actually happens in practice, while preserving and even bolstering the empirical rigor and scientific identity of the field.
