“Nothing as practical as a good theory” Does Lewin's Maxim still have salience in the applied social sciences?

Abstract

In the spirit of the theme of ASIST 2015, the influence of Kurt Lewin's Maxim—“there is nothing as practical as a good theory”—in the applied social sciences (including Information Science) is examined through the lens of Obliteration by Incorporation text analysis. Six hundred ninety three English language scholarly journal articles published between 1945–2013, retrieved through a search of broad and specialized full-text bibliographic databases as well as back issues of JASIS/JASIST using known variants of Lewin's Maxim, were categorized based on the text associated with the Maxim. Psychology, Management, and Education articles dominated the retrieval (∼70%) while Information Science was essentially invisible. In successive 5-year periods between 1989 and 2013, the proportion of Explicit Citations to Lewin's writings increased in all three subject areas, while the proportions of invocations of Lewin (attribution without citation) and Implicit Citations (use of the Maxim without attribution) varied from one period to the next; Lewin's influence appears to be increasing rather than being obliterated. The influence of Lewin's ideas in Information Science was not visible here but merits further exploration.