The future in the social sciences

How the social sciences conceptualize the future depends in varying measure upon intellectual developments within these sciences, upon competition versus cooperation between them, and upon changes in the surrounding society that alter the role of social science. This article notes that social science has matured into a set of somewhat static disciplines that do not expect to grow rapidly as they did decades ago, and this fact may give them a relatively conservative view of the future. However, it is possible to identify trends and factors that might inspire social science to think very differently. The article presents these ideas through nine scenarios: a surprise-free projection, increased reliance of post-industrial society on social science, the clash of civilizations, a possible renaissance in cultural anthropology, the drive toward hegemony by economics, the potential impact of biological advances, a hypothetical resurgence of personality psychology, the emergence of new information-oriented social sciences, and the need for thinking outside the terrestrial box.