Social Sciences
Explore faculty and student work in economics, sociology, political science, anthropology, and other disciplines shaping our understanding of society.
Is the Constitution Broken?
Harvard legal scholars debate the state of our founding national document.
Harvard in China: Barry Bloom, Arthur Kleinman, and Yuanli Liu on healthcare
A panel discussion with Barry Bloom, Yuanli Liu, and Arthur Kleinman
Harvard in China: connections in medical anthropology, ecological city planning
Ethnographic perspectives on caregiving and Shanghai urban development
"Networked" Web Extra: video and Web-exclusive sidebars on network science
Slime mold demonstrates the power of networks, fanning out to solve a maze and construct a railway map. Video and Web-exclusive sidebars to accompany the feature article "Networked."
Honors thesis plumbs meltdown
A Harvard honors thesis on the Wall Street meltdown is a source for an important new book on the subject.
Hausmann and Hidalgo find wealthier economies are also more complex
The most prosperous countries have economies that produce a variety of goods.
Pleasure by Proxy: How Other People’s Experiences Help Predict Happiness
Other people’s experience is a more accurate guide than your own imagination to what you will like.
Torturers think victims expressing pain are guilty
Inflicting pain changes the perceptions of torturers, not necessarily their knowledge.
Harvard Headlines: Derek Bok, Ellen Langer, Lawrence Lessig
A review of Bok's new book, The Politics of Happiness; a profile of positive-psychology pioneer Langer; Lessig's suggestions for reforming Congress
Harvard perspectives on world economic crises
A panel of social scientists dissects past mistakes, and sees daunting fiscal and regulatory challenges ahead for the United States and Europe.
Oscar nominees include film from book by Harvard anthropologist Kimberly Theidon
Kimberly Theidon's book on female victims of Peruvian violence was the basis for The Milk of Sorrow, nominated for best foreign-language film.