Bent Flyvbjerg

Bent Flyvbjerg is the first Chair and BT Professor of Major Programme Management at Oxford University's Saïd Business School and is Founding Director of the University's BT Centre for Major Programme Management. He was previously Professor of Planning at Aalborg University, Denmark and Chair of Infrastructure Policy and Planning at Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands.^[1][2] Flyvbjerg received his Ph.D. in economic geography from Aarhus University, Denmark. He has written extensively about megaprojects, decision making, city management, and philosophy of social science.

Research

Bent Flyvbjerg developed the research methodology called phronetic social science and has employed the methodology in studies of city management and of megaprojects.

In 2005, Flyvbjerg identified two main causes of misinformation in policy and management: strategic misrepresentation (lying) and optimism bias (appraisal optimism). Flyvbjerg and his associates have developed methods to curb misinformation focused on improved accountability and reference class forecasting. The methods are being used in practice in policy and planning. Bent Flyvbjerg has lent his name to the so-called "Flyvbjerg Debate," which is a debate over the role of social science in society in response to his book Making Social Science Matter.

Finally, Flyvbjerg has identified a number of misunderstandings about case study research and devised ways of correcting these misunderstandings. ^[3]

Bent Flyvbjerg was knighted in the Order of the Dannebrog in 2002.

Making Social Science Matter

See also: Phronetic social science

The book describes phronetic social science. First, the book argues that the social sciences have failed as science. Second, it develops the argument that in order to matter again the social sciences must model themselves after phronesis (as opposed to episteme, which is at the core of natural science). Finally, the book develops methodological guidelines and shows practical examples of how phronetic social science may be employed in real research.^[4]

The books makes a double call for, first, social sciences that reject the natural science model as an ideal that may be achieved in social science and, second, social sciences that are more relevant to people outside social science, e.g., ordinary citizens and policy makers. Flyvbjerg argues that to gain relevance, social science must inform practical reason, and that this is best done by a focus on values and power. In terms of the philosophy and history of science, Flyvbjerg takes his cue from Aristotle rather than from Socrates and Plato.

Flyvbjerg's book Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice is an example of the methodology and theory developed in Making Social Science Matter employed in practice.^[5]

Responses

In a 2004 article, Stanford political science professor David Laitin critiqued Making Social Science Matter and Flyvbjerg's perspective.^[6] Flyvbjerg countered by arguing that Laitin's critique was ill-founded and unethical,^[7] and was joined by Sanford Schram.^[8]

A book about the significance of Flyvbjerg's work and the debate with Laitin, Making Political Science Matter: Debating Knowledge, Research, and Method, edited by Schram and Brian Caterino, was published in 2006.^[9] Caterino and Schram wrote in the book's introduction that "The special thing about Flyvbjerg's challenge to social science is the way it bridges theory and practice in a way that unites philosophical and empirical subdivisions in the social sciences."^[10] Caterino and Schram argue that Flyvbjerg thereby simultaneously provides a strong theoretical foundation for his vision of socially and politically relevant social sciences and illuminates his position with concrete examples from his own empirical research. Flyvbjerg in this manner transgresses disciplinary boundaries to make a more compelling call for a social science that people could use to make a difference in their lives, according to Caterino and Schram.

Bibliography

• Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again (ISBN 052177568X)
• Megaprojects and Risk: An Anatomy of Ambition (ISBN 0521009464)
• Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice (ISBN 0226254518)
• Decision-Making on Mega-Projects: Cost-Benefit Analysis, Planning and Innovation (ISBN 9781845427375)

References

1. ^ Krak's Who's Who, Copenhagen, 2008
2. ^ Bent Flyvbjerg's homepage
3. ^ Bent Flyvbjerg, 2006, "Five Misunderstandings About Case Study Research." Qualitative Inquiry, vol. 12, no. 2, April, pp. 219-245.; Flyvbjerg, Bent, 2011, "Case Study," in Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, eds., The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research, 4th Edition (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage), pp. 301-316.
4. ^ Bent Flyvbjerg, Making Social Science Matter: Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again (Cambridge University Press, 2001) ISBN 052177568X
5. ^ Bent Flyvbjerg, Rationality and Power: Democracy in Practice, The University of Chicago Press, 1998.
6. ^ David Laitin, "The Perestroikan Challenge to Social Science," Politics and Society, vol. 31, no. 1, March 2003, pp. 163-184.
7. ^ Bent Flyvbjerg, "A Perestroikan Straw Man Answers Back: David Laitin and Phronetic Political Science." Politics and Society, vol. 32, no. 3, September 2004, pp. 389-416. [1]
8. ^ Sanford F. Schram, "Beyond Paradigm: Resisting the Assimilation of Phronetic Social Science." Politics and Society, vol. 32, no. 3, September 2004, pp. 417-433.
9. ^ Schram, Sanford, and Brian Caterino, eds. 2006. Making Political Science Matter: Debating Knowledge, Research, and Method. New York: New York University Press.
10. ^ Brian Caterino and Sanford F. Schram, "Introduction: Reframing the Debate," in Sanford F. Schram and Brian Caterino, eds., Making Political Science Matter: Debating Knowledge, Research, and Method. New York: New York University Press, 2006.

External links

• Bent Flyvbjerg's homepage at Oxford
• Bent Flyvbjerg's homepage at Aalborg
• Profile of Flyvbjerg and reference-class forecasting in Miller-McCune magazine
• Encyclopedia Britannica about the Flyvbjerg Debate

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