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Knowledge
is a store of information (as in a database) available to draw on. Sociology
of knowledge is the study of the social bases of what is known, believed or valued both by
individuals and society.
The essential idea is that knowledge itself, how it is defined and
constituted, is a cultural product shaped by social context and history. Scholars
have convincingly demonstrated over the past decade that natural scientific knowledge is a
product of social, cultural, historical and political processes.
In this view knowledge cannot be treated as a thing in itself, as an
objective, universally true body of facts and theory, but must be understood in the social
context in which it originated.
The principal ideas of postmodernism are closely linked to this long
tradition in philosophy and the social sciences.
"increased awareness of diversity has altered the way we view the world."
Richard Harvey Brown, University of Maryland.
From Hegel to the Sociology of Knowledge: Contested Narratives
Austin Harrington
The article examines Randall Collins's magnum opus, The Sociology of Philosphies: A Global
Theory of Intellectual Change in relation to a number of discourses bearing on the
sociology of knowledge and the sociology of philosophies, from Hegel and 19th-century
historicism to Mannheim, Foucault, Bourdieu and Gillian Rose's Hegel Contra Sociology. The
article explicates Collins's dual theory of intellectual networks and institutional
conflict as factors in the explanation of intellectual change. The article interprets
Collins's work as a classic application of Durkheimian sociological principles to the
analysis of knowledge. However, the article argues that Collins is less successful in
accounting for the internal normative motives of inquiry and the problem of what Hegel saw
as the claims of reason in history based on the orientation to truth. -
tcs.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/18/6/125
Knowledge and Utility: Implications for the Sociology of Knowledge
Michael Mulkay
In this paper an attempt is made to widen the scope of the current debate about the
possibility of subjecting scientific knowledge to sociological analysis. It is suggested
that in identifying scientific knowledge as epistemologically special, and as exempt from
sociological analysis, sociologists have tended to make two basic assumptions; namely that
scientific theories can be clearly validated by successful practical application and that
the general theoretical formulations of science do regularly generate such practical
applications. These assumptions, as customarily interpreted, pose a major challenge for
any sociological analysis which views scientific knowledge as the contingent outcome of
interpretative and context-dependent social acts. It is argued, however, in some detail,
that the validity of these assumptions is doubtful and that the usefulness of science is
no barrier to the full sociological analysis of scientific knowledge. -
http://sss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/9/1/63
Social Work and the Sociology of Knowledge
JOHN PALEY
Department of Social Policy, School of Policy Studies, Cranfield Institute of Technology,
Cranfield, Bedford MK43 0AL.
Summary: The research literature on social workers' use of theory suggests that social
work, conceived as a form of knowledge in action, is amenable to a sociology of knowledge
approach. This paper tries to illustrate the relevant parallels, and uses both empirical
and philosophical themes in the recent sociology of science to identify a strategy for
social work research. - bjsw.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/17/2/169
Idealism and the Sociology of Knowledge
David Bloor
Science Studies Unit, Department of Sociology, University of Edinburgh, 21 Buccleuch
Place, Edinburgh EH8 9LN, Scotland, UK. Fax: +44 131 650 6886.
The sociology of scientific knowledge is an empirical discipline, but occasionally it can
be fruitful to reflect on its methodological basis. Critics have sometimes claimed that it
is committed to a form of `idealism' — that is, to discounting or playing down the
input of the material world. This arises because sociologists often sum up their
conclusions by saying that `knowledge is a social institution', or that `concepts are
institutions'. If we think of social institutions according to the self-referential or
performative model outlined by Barry Barnes, this may at first seem to reinforce and
justify the charge of idealism. The main argument of this Comment is to show that while an
`idealist' account of institutions is correct, the conclusion alleged by the critics does
not follow. A secondary purpose is to compare Barnes' account of institutions with recent
work by John Searle, and to show the significance of their different underlying
assumptions about the nature of meaning. - sss.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/26/4/839
Sociology of Knowledge: New Perspectives - Part One
Norbert Elias
Amsterdam and at the Institute of Social Studies, The Hague
The core problems of sociological and philosophical theories of knowledge remain insoluble
and unrelated as long as both theories start from static models. The problems can be
solved, and the respective theories related to each other, without undue difficulties if
the acquisition of knowledge is conceptualized as a long-term process which takes place
within societies also considered as long-term processes. This approach has the added
advantage of being in closer agreement with the evidence. The paper indicates what needs
to be unlearned and what to be learned in order to prepare the way for such a unified
theoretical framework which can serve as a guide to, and which can be in turn corrected
by, empirical sociological studies of all types of knowledge, scientific and practical as
well as non-scientific or ideological. - soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/5/2/149
Sociology of Knowledge: New Perspectives - Part Two
Norbert Elias
The Hague and Leicester
The assumption underlying most philosophical theories of science, that one can apply to
any scientific theory the concept of `truth', is, with its implication of absolute
finality, a hangover from the period when Newtonian physics was regarded as an absolute
end state. The hidden mourning about the passing of this ideal science gives present
philosophical approaches to science and scientific method their common stamp. The
alternative seems to be the retreat into a sociological relativism. The paper shows that
it is possible to work out a science-theoretical paradigm which avoids the pitfalls of
both philosophical absolutism and sociological relativism. It suggests that instead of
discussing criteria of a fictitious absolute end-state of knowledge, one might try to
discover criteria and conditions for the advance of knowledge, non-scientific and
scientific. A theory of this kind has the added advantage that it can be tested by, and
can serve as a guide for, empirical studies of sciences and of knowledge generally. The
paper also suggests that discussions about `value-freedom' should be abandoned in favour
of enquiries into the use of scientific and non-scientific values in scientific work. -
soc.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/5/3/355
The Sociology of Knowledge as a Tool for Research Into the History of Economic
Thought
By Jon D. Wisman
Abstract. Hill and Rouse's formulation of Mannheim's framework for the sociology of
knowledge as a means of examining the history of economic thought is rejected although it
is held that they render an important service to economics by arguing the need for
employment of the sociology of knowledge as a research tool. They have not appropriated
Mannheim's categories authentically and they apply them in an overly simplified and
undialectical manner. Even Mannheim's authentic formulation of the sociology of knowledge
suffered limitations which more recent work enables us to overcome. What is believed to be
a superior sociology of knowledge framework for investigating the evolution of economic
thought is constructed by joining the Berger-Luckmann model of legitimation with
Habermas's philosophical anthropology. Increasingly economists are recognizing that their
discipline is in a state of crisis. The crucial issue is how we can better understand the
sociological nature of economic thought—its social functioning—to enable us to
formulate our own economic theory so as to maximize human welfare. - blackwell-synergy.com |
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