Disciplinary identity and the idea of a unified social science: A survey of British academics

There is substantial philosophical disagreement over whether the social sciences are united by a set of fundamental epistemic and methodological principles, echoing broader debates about the unity and disunity of science more generally. This question does not merely concern philosophers but also social scientists themselves. Social scientists form beliefs about the unity or disunity of the social sciences which likely influence their research practices, such as their choices of specialty areas and whether they pursue interdisciplinary projects. To assess such beliefs, the article presents the results of a survey of 1188 British academics working in social science departments. It shows that researchers in core disciplines like economics, sociology, and political science are more likely to identify as social scientists, while those in peripheral fields such as history and psychology are less attached to the category. Despite widespread support for interdisciplinarity, results reveal deep epistemological divergences across disciplines and a greater proximity to the humanities rather than the natural sciences.