essentially contested concept


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essentially contested concept

a category of general concepts in the social sciences, e.g. POWER, the application of which, according to Gallie (1955) and Lukes (1974), is inherently a matter of dispute. The reason given for this is that competing versions of concepts such as ‘power’ inevitably involve relativity to VALUES. According to this view, hypotheses using concepts such as ‘power’ can be appraised empirically but will remain relative to the evaluative framework within which the particular versions of the concept are couched. There are parallels between this notion and Weber's earlier view that social science propositions are VALUE-RELATIVE (see also VALUE FREEDOM AND VALUE NEUTRALITY). See also POWER.
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THERE is consensus between scholars of security studies that 'security is an essentially contested concept'.
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Okoye, Adaeze (2009), "Theorising Corporate Social Responsibility as an Essentially contested Concept: Is a Definition Necessary?, Journal of Business Ethics, 89:613-27.
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Michael J. Griffin, and Tom Moylan, ed.: Exploring the Utopian Impulse: Essays on Utopian Thought and Practice
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Gorman, Jonathan. Rights and Reason: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Rights
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Critical study is an essentially contested concept. R.
Theological variety in the Baptist experience: in his foreword to Bruce T. Gourley's The Godmakers, Walter Shurden wrote: "the making of history books without a point of view has no end." (1) The point of view from which this article is being written is that of a Southern Baptist in the second half of the twentieth century
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philosophers call an 'essentially contested concept,'"
The Past Ahead of Us
Indeed, I think that Canadian Federalism can be regarded as an "essentially contested concept" under the criteria set forth by W.B.
Post-colonial federalism: social citizenship and new identities

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