Discourses on Society The Shaping of the Social Science Disciplines

This book, which represents probably the most comprehensive discussion of the emergence of modem social science yet produced, is of far more than merely historical interest. The contributors set out to rewrite the history of the social sciences and to sho

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Sociology of the Sciences A YEARBOOK - VOLUME XV - 1991 Managing Editor:

R.D. Whitley, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester Editorial Board:

G. Bohme, Technische Hochschule, Darmstadt N. Elias, Amsterdam Y. Ezrahi, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem L. Graham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology T. Lenoir, University of Pennsylvania E. Mendelsohn, Harvard University H. Nowotny, InstitutfUr Wissenschaftstheorie und Wissenschaftsforschung, Vienna Claire Salomon-Bayet, Paris R. Schwartz-Cowan, State University of New York at Stony Brook T. Shinn, Groupe dEtude des Methodes de VAnalyse Sociologique, Paris P. Weingart, University of Bielefeld

The titles published in this series are listed at the end of this volume.

DISCOURSES ON SOCIETY THE SHAPING OF THE SOCIAL SCIENCE DISCIPLINES

Edited by PETER WAGNER Wissenschafiszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung

BJORN WITTRGCK Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in the Social Sciences, Uppsala, and University of Stockholm

and RICHARD WHITLEY University of Manchester

M KLUWER ACADEMIC PUBLISHERS DORDRECHT / BOSTON / LONDON

ISBN 0-7923-1001-2

Published by Kluwer Academic Publishers, P.O. Box 17, 3300 A A Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Kluwer Academic Publishers incorporates the publishing programmes of D. Reidel, Martinus Nijhoff, Dr W. Junk and MTP Press. Sold and distributed in the U.S.A. and Canada by Kluwer Academic Publishers, 101 Philip Drive, Norwell, MA 02061, U.S.A. In all other countries, sold and distributed by Kluwer Academic Publishers, P.O. Box 322,3300 AH Dordrecht, The Netherlands.

Printed on acid-free paper

All Rights Reserved © 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner. Printed in the Netherlands

IN MEMORIAM NORBERT ELIAS

Upon being asked, in one of the last interviews he gave, where he thought university-based research and sociology were going, Norbert Elias replied: *The drawback of sociological research - and not only of it alone - is that it marches towards an increasingly pronounced form of specialisation. It is indispensable to give life to a sociology which operates in an interdisciplinary sense, taking account of the other sciences and to base itself upon a conceptualisation of knowledge which does not rest exclusively upon the economy. The shrinking of the horizon of knowledge, the obtuse and obstinate specialisation, is a response which is completely inadequate to the situation in which we find ourselves" ("Marx e Weber, ovvero gli opposti estremismi", di Klaus Davl, Corriere della sera, 18 ottobre 1990). Norbert Elias' life-long work and the contributions he made to the Yearbook series as a member of the Editorial Board are in complete agreement with this statement. He saw the sociology of the sciences as an important challenge because it implied that a p