Concepts and the Social Order

Robert K. Merton and the Future of Sociology
ISBN: 
978-615-5053-41-2
cloth
$79.00 / €69.00 / £63.00
Publication date: 
2011
250 pages with illustrations

Offers a comprehensive perspective on knowledge production in the field of sociology. Moreover, it is a tribute to the scope of Merton's work and the influence Merton has had on the work and life of sociologists around the world. This is reflected in each of the 12 chapters by internationally acclaimed scholars witnessing the range of fields Merton has contributed to as well as the personal impact he has had on sociologists. This approach is in itself a tribute to Merton: an analysis of knowledge production through a contextualized review of an author's life-work – a quintessentially “Mertonian” enterprise.

Among others, the chapters deal with history and social context—an exploration of sociology in three very different countries; the relationship between science and society; the role of experience and the conceptual word; the “Matthew effect” and “repetition with variation.” The contributors consider a number of Mertonian themes and concepts, re-evaluating them, adapting them, highlighting their continued relevance and thus opening a well of possibilities for new research.

List of Illustrations and Tables
Book Concept and Preface, Yehuda Elkana
Note to Sound and Sculpture, Amos Elkana and Alexander Polzin
Introduction
1. The Paradoxes of Robert K. Merton: Fragmentary Reflections, Arnold Thackray
2. Looking for Shoulders to Stand on, or for a Paradigm for the Sociology of Science, Anna Wessely
3. R. K. Merton in France: Foucault, Bourdieu, Latour and the Invention of Mainstream Sociology in Paris, Jean-Louis Fabiani
4. Merton in South Asia: The Question of Religion and the Modernity of Science, Dhruv Raina
5. The Contribution of Rober K. Merton’s Key Concepts to the Analysis of Gender Differentiation in Society, Cynthia Epstein
6. A Tribute to Robert Merton: Protestant and Catholic Ethics Revisited, Rivka Feldhay
7. The Concept of Ambivalence in the Relationship between Science and Society, Helga Nowotny
8. Re-evaluating the Place of Science in Evaluating Modernity, Gabriel Motzkin
9. Democracy and the Normative Structure of Science After Modernity, Yaron Ezrahi
10. The Matthew Effect Writ Large and Larger: A Study in Sociological Semantics, Harriet Zuckerman
11. Repetition With Variation: A Mertonian Inquiry Into a Lost Mertonian Concept, Charles Camic
12. Robert K. Merton and the Tansformation of Sociology of Knowledge and Possible New Directions, Shmuel Noah Eisenstadt
Bibliography
List of Contributors