Abstract
Neither the future of operational research nor that of social science is knowable. Statements about their future inter-relationship therefore have the status of conjectures. But there are certain preconditions before one can even develop and support plausible conjectures. One is a clarification of concepts — without which general confusion can all too easily prevail. Another is that conjectures about the future need to be firmly based on an analysis not just of the present (a mere snapshot in time),but of the past.
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© 1989 Plenum Press, New York
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Rosenhead, J. (1989). OR : Social Science or Barbarism. In: Jackson, M.C., Keys, P., Cropper, S.A. (eds) Operational Research and the Social Sciences. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0789-1_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4613-0789-1_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
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