Labeling or science-by-buzzwords: The semantic trap in academic research and how to get out of it

Abstract

The social sciences are drowning in new fancy academic terms or buzzwords, labels with unprecise definitions, rebranding phenomenon that somehow seem familiar. We are all surrounded by smart cities, innovation, and sustainability. What do these terms mean that we could not express earlier? Introducingthem also raises new questions, which at first may seem provocative: Are there dumb cities too, if sowhere? Do we carry out research at our universities that is not innovative? Does the literature onsustainability make our products more sustainable? Above all, these new fields are formulated in almostsuspiciously positive terms attracting the attention of our politicians and echoed everywhere. How cananyone be against smart cities, innovation and sustainability? It must be good, important and thereforeit deserves funding. To become more relevant academic research must redirect its focus from buzzwords to problems, notjust smart “research gaps” in the literature. Instead of listing keywords, researchers, academic journalsand academic databases should list problems (1), and the problems should be stated in full sentences (2)using as few (3) and as simple words as possible (4). We should also insist on clear, mutually exclusivedefinitions. By searching for problems instead of labels it will become much easier to find relevantresearch across different labels and disciplines.We need to be much stricter when admitting new labels. If a new term is not exact and not muchdifferent from a previous term it should be declined. Focus should be on what the Germans since the 19thcentury understand by “verstehen”, as the "interpretive or participatory" examination of socialphenomena, not on coining new terms. Today new terms often come to life because we did not readenough, or we thought more about internal marketing and our own self-promotion instead of focusing onproblems that are important for humanity. We are all guilty of this to a certain degree as it’s difficult toescape the logic trap that is our current social science research system.