Applied social sciences

Applied social sciences are those academic social science disciplines, professions and occupations which seek to use basic social science knowledge, particularly from sociology and political science, and to a lesser extent psychology, social psychology and anthropology to make an impact on the daily life of communities, organizations and persons.

Social work, public health, urban planning, and public administration may have been the original applied social sciences in the U.S. All arose out of social reform movements of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Urban planning, like landscape architecture and the much older architecture is concerned with aspects of the human built environment. In each case, applied social science concerns (in particular, the use of social research findings) are intermixed with technical, engineering, aesthetic and other concerns and questions.

The practice of politics is an applied social science only to the extent that political action seeks to apply the insights of political research or theory in practice. The use of survey research techniques in estimating the impact of political campaigns for elected office is one such application in widespread use.

To some extent, the applied social science categorization can be located on both sides of the Aristotelean distinction between praxis and techne, with some applied social sciences tending more toward the one and others toward the other.