Sociology of Scientific Knowledge

The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) studies how scientific knowledge itself — its facts, claims, and content — is shaped by social processes, going beyond the earlier sociology of science that focused on scientific institutions and norms.

Scope

It covers the institutional sociology of science (norms and reward systems), the historical and philosophical reframing of scientific change, and the constructivist study (the 'strong programme' and laboratory studies) of how scientific facts are produced in practice.

Core questions

• How is science organized as a social institution?
• What norms govern scientific work?
• How does scientific knowledge change?
• How are scientific facts produced in practice?
• How do society and science shape each other?

Key concepts

• Scientific ethos
• Reward system of science
• Paradigm
• Scientific revolution
• Social construction of facts
• Actor-network theory

Key theories

The institutional sociology of science (Mertonian)

Merton identified the ethos of science (universalism, communism, disinterestedness, organized skepticism) and its reward system — the institutional tradition from which SSK later departed by turning to the content of scientific knowledge itself.

Paradigms and scientific revolutions

Kuhn argued science proceeds through normal-science paradigms punctuated by revolutions, not steady accumulation.

Laboratory studies / social construction

Latour and Woolgar's ethnography of the laboratory showed how scientific facts are constructed through practice — a founding work of the constructivist sociology of scientific knowledge.

History

Mertonian sociology of science (norms, institutions) was challenged from the 1960s-70s by Kuhn's paradigms and by the constructivist sociology of scientific knowledge and laboratory studies (Latour, Woolgar), forming the interdisciplinary field of science and technology studies.

Debates

Are scientific facts discovered or constructed?

Mertonian and realist views contend with constructivist accounts of how facts are produced in practice.

Key figures

• Robert K. Merton
• Thomas Kuhn
• Bruno Latour
• Steve Woolgar

Seminal works

• merton-1973
• kuhn-1962
• latour-woolgar-1979

Frequently asked questions

What is a paradigm?

In Kuhn's sense, the shared framework of theories, methods, and assumptions that guides 'normal science' until a revolution replaces it.