This is one of the first ventures to explore the relationship between social science and society in historical, sociological and global perspective. What impact has the research in these areas had on society? How are research fields established and to what ends? This book is a compilation of articles by an international and multidisciplinary group of scholars. The authors analyse the practical making and discursive aspects of social scientific knowledge and examples are drawn from a broad range of disciplines such as sociology, psychology, economics, and gender studies. The overall aim of the book is to encourage a contextual and reflexive understanding of the complex relationship between the social sciences and society. The bonds of the past and today are made up by reciprocity and involve key elements such as gender and power, science and politics, academic boundaries and global power relations. The book should be of interest to researchers, graduate students or anyone else interested in understanding and reflecting upon the uses, roles and functions of social science in today's globalised world.