The role of socio-demographic differences in the perception of values: an interdisciplinary approach

Abstract

Purpose – the aim is to discover the links between values between individuals and between different social science disciplines. Design/methodology/approach – the study was based on convenience purposive sampling. The paper first provides an overview of interdisciplinarity in the context of the social sciences from a values perspective. Then, after collecting data through in-depth interviews, points of overlap between the attitudes and values of the informants were discovered. The study discovered links between individuals' values and different social science programmes. Finding - Characterising the links between the narrow interdisciplinarity of the social sciences and people's values and attitudes revealed that individuals from different socio-demographic groups express attitudes that have many similarities. The similarities relate to attitudes towards the meaning of life, beauty and inspiration. This can be useful for discovering the links between different social sciences, where the individual is at the heart of the research, with his/her values and individual experiences. Research limitations/implications - this study may lead to further exploration of the links between individuals and social science disciplines. Limitations relate to the subjectivity of the selection of informants. Practical implications - this paper provides a hermeneutic approach to the theoretical and practical understanding of the links between individuals and the social sciences. Positive aspects of interdisciplinarity include enhancing creativity (Tang, 2019), people's ability to work together (Pryor & Steinberg, 2023), and the potential for expanding social research (Huutoniemi et al., 2010). As research shows, a broad view of interdisciplinarity as a diffusion of human experience (Siebert et al., 2020) can be a useful component of interdisciplinarity, which is explored in this study. This study explores the possibilities of combining the subjective range of individuals' values and attitudes with the need for research. Originality/value - The results of the study can be applied in the field of management, as well as in research on relevant issues. The research may be of interest to the general public as well as to professionals in management, sociology, political science and business.