The Problem of Knowledge Cumulation

Session Submission Type: Virtual Full Paper Panel

Session Description

A common observation about work in the social sciences is that there is little knowledge cumulation. Everyone runs his/her own shop, searching for new truths, and no hypotheses are ever adequately proven or disproven. Theoretical fertility is high, mortality low. Attention to each new theory may rise and fall but this cannot be taken as a sign that the theory is right or wrong; it is simply a sign of scholarly excitement, which waxes and wanes. Moreover, each new theory strikes out with a new framework and new vocabulary, which doesn’t successfully integrate previous theories.

To many observers, the non-progressive nature of social science is an inevitable by-product of the subject matter, which is transient, open to interpretation, and affected by myriad factors – including the very theories that we create. But to say that human action is difficult to study scientifically is not to say that it is impossible. With respect to cumulation, it is surely a matter of degrees. One cannot draw a bright line between subjects that are “cumulative” and subjects that are not.

We need to cumulate knowledge about cumulation. In this panel, we take a close look at the topic as it plays out in political science. Papers address a variety of related questions... How can cumulation be measured (how do we know it when we see it)? For what research questions can we say cumulation is occurring? Why is it more characteristic of some field than others? How might further cumulation be fostered?

Sub Unit

• Theme Panel

Individual Presentations

• Accidental Cumulation in Studies of Clientelism, Corruption, and Governance - Miriam A. Golden, European University Institute; Stephane Wolton, London School of Economics

• Meta-Analysis in Domains Where Many Studies Are Proprietary: Voter Turnout - Donald P. Green, Columbia University; Thomas Leavitt, Harvard University

• Loosely Coordinated Studies in Evidence-Based Policymaking - Jacob Bowers, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

• The “Rolling Metaketa” Approach to Knowledge Accumulation - Macartan Humphreys, Columbia University; Cyrus Samii, New York University; Alexandra Scacco, WZB Berlin Social Science Center; Anna Maria Wilke, Columbia University; Julio Saul Solís Arce, WZB Berlin Social Science Center

Chair

• John Gerring University of Texas, Austin

Discussants

• Erin Hartman UC Berkeley

• Julio Saul Solís Arce WZB Berlin Social Science Center