Forecasting is a major controversial issue in the epistemological debates that pervade social sciences today. Economics is the field that is most familiar with anticipations, where forecasting is more easily accepted than in fields such as sociology or political science, let alone history. This site offer bibliographical resources that are useful tools in order to understand these epistemological disputes and that can be instrumental when you decide to participate into the debate.

Special attention will be dedicated to the theory practice nexus, which is one of the most crucial dimension of forecasting both as a field of practice and a field of knowledge.

Conversations on this blog and its various posts examine the possibility for social sciences to have an anticipatory approach. Social sciences – some of them and in certain instances – could elaborate forward-oriented explanatory and or normative analyses.

This hypothesis needs to be tested. We will then make a distinction between past-oriented, present-focused and forward-looking theories of social sciences.

Another aspect of this research program is the dimension of the uses of social sciences, applied social sciences for policy purposes. The interest of policy makers for social sciences is all the more significant if they can infer from an explanatory analysis a policy recommendation. Disciplines such as International Relations were built upon these premisses. We’ll examine why, when and how social sciences – paying a specific attention to IR – are used to make anticipations.