What are the social sciences? What do they do? How are they practised in
Australia? The Poor Relation examines the place of the social
sciences - from economics and psychology to history, law and
philosophy - in the teaching and research conducted by Australian
universities. Across sixty years, The Poor Relation charts the
changing circumstances of the social sciences, and measures their
contribution to public policy. In doing so it also relates the
arrangements made to support them and explains why they are so
persistently treated as the poor relation of science and technology.