History of Social Sciences

How to Map and Explain the Diversity of Research Programs in the Field of Science Studies

by Andrey Kozhanov

report for Society of Social Studies of Science Annual Meeting, 2011.
This project is in progress...

Historical spaces of social psychology

by Nikos Kalampalikis

Kalampalikis, N., Delouvée, S., Pétard, J.-P. (2006). Historical spaces of social psychology, History of the Human Sciences, 19(2), 23-43.

An extensive analysis of all social psychology textbooks published, in french, between 1947 and 2001, including a... more An extensive analysis of all social psychology textbooks published, in french, between 1947 and 2001, including a history chapter, provides a rich corpus for the study of the history of social psychology. In this article we choose to study the historical spaces of social psychology, in order to show how the discipline was located in geographical, urban, institutional and collective spaces. We argue that, into this specific corpus, spaces are essentially related to some solitary and consensual scholars names without any informative reference to their institutions, nor to any trace of collective work. Moreover, we try to highlight several styles, ways and norms of collective writing the history of this discipline.

Governing Model Populations: Queries, Quantification, and William Petty’s “Scale of Salubrity”

by Ted McCormick

The mental asylum of San Servolo, Venice (1860—1978), History of Psychiatry, 20-4, 2009, p. 511

by Elisabetta Basso

Co-authored with Mario Galzigna; Egidio Priani; Simone Botti,

In autumn 2006, Professor Mario Galzigna (Department of Historical Studies, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice) started a... more In autumn 2006, Professor Mario Galzigna (Department of Historical Studies, Ca’ Foscari University, Venice) started a historical-epistemological research project at the Archives of the Foundation IRSESC (Social and Cultural Emargination Research and Studies Institute: http://www.fondazionesanservolo.it/html/
fondazione.asp), formerly seat of the old mental asylum of Venice (which closed on 13 August 1978 after 250 years).
The Foundation’s heritage comprises a very large archive including the following sections: administrative; sanitary; accounting; photographic. In addition, it includes the book collections of the old psychiatric hospitals of San Servolo,
San Clemente (feminine section: 1873–1987) and provincial civil Hospital SS. Giovanni e Paolo of Venice (mental hospital section). There is also material relating to San Servolo’s pharmacy.
The main aim of the research so far – by means of a systematic examination of a selection of clinical records – has been the reconstruction of the psychiatric apparatus of San Servolo from 1840 to 1904, in its multiple forms, and the analysis of the network of relations between the asylum and other main institutions, with particular attention to those with political, sanitary and judicial power in the Veneto region of the period.
Now we would like to enlarge the perspective of this research by setting the psychiatric experience of San Servolo into the historical, institutional and scientifi c European context from the point of view of both psychiatric practice and clinical nosography (evolution in diagnostical approaches; assessment of the
infl uence of European scientifi c production on these practices and theories).
At present, we are looking for European or non-European sponsors and partners and fi nancial support in order to continue our work in a wider, international perspective and context.

The Comedy of the Commons

by Nolan Bensen

An attack on Garett Hardin's classic, closely read, and much vulgarized 1968 article "The Tragedy of the Commons." I argue that while the vulgarizations have tended to misinterpret the article, they have not failed to spread mild and reserved versions of its thinly veiled racism and totally unveiled advocacy for eugenics.

Nationality and Origins in French Statistics: Ambiguous Categories

by Patrick Simon

Published in Population, 11e année, n°1, 1999 pp. 193-219

The categories used in the social sciences for the description and analysis of the phenomena linked to... more The categories used in the social sciences for the description and analysis of the phenomena linked to 'immigration'
have undergone far-reaching transformations in recent years. After the exclusive use for over a century of a classification based on legally defined nationality, the introduction of the category of 'immigrant' marked a first break from the French statistical tradition. A second, more radical break will occur with the introduction of references to origins, that is to an individual's ancestry, a situation that is now evolving rapidly. These changes are occurring in a context characterized by the mismatch of the systems of vital registration and categorization created to satisfy different and ultimately unscientific imperatives. To
understand the gap that has developed between the categorization used in the official statistics and the
scientific questions about migration and its long-term consequences for French society, we examine the
history of the classification of immigrant populations. This overview points to the influence of the national
model on the categories employed in the social sciences. The second part of the article explores the
strengths and weaknesses of the various categories used in the quantitative studies of social
phenomena that involve 'immigrants' or people of 'immigrant origin'. The problems associated with the
construction of categories based on the origins, usually ethnic, of individuals are examined by means of
a non-exhaustive catalogue of recent survey applications.

Interpreting Territory and Power

by Mark Bevir

Government and Opposition 45 (2010), 436-456

The article offers an interpretive approach to understanding Jim Bulpitt's Territory and Power in the United Kingdom.... more The article offers an interpretive approach to understanding Jim Bulpitt's Territory and Power in the United Kingdom. The first two parts interpret Bulpitt's text by locating it respectively in its historical and contemporaneous contexts. It argues that Territory and Power belongs in a broader movement to rethink the state in a way that accommodates the rise of new behavioural topics. Territory and Power also defends modernist empiricist approaches to institutions and other mid-level topics against the positivism and general theories of behaviouralism. The final part points to an interpretive approach to the state as an alternative to the behaviouralism and institutionalism that lurk behind Bulpitt's ideas. A thoroughly interpretive approach would decentre territory and power, revealing them to be contingent and shifting products of struggles over meanings.

Naturrecht, Positivismus, Behavioralismus, kritische Theorie. Eine ideengeschichtliche Bestimmung konzeptioneller Grundlagen der Disziplin Politikwissenschaft in Österreich.

by Thomas Koenig

paper to be given at the Politikwissenschaft-Tag in Salzburg, 2.12.2011.

Die Geschichte der Politikwissenschaft in Österreich wurde inzwischen ausführlich beforscht. Was bisher aber fehlt,... more Die Geschichte der Politikwissenschaft in Österreich wurde inzwischen ausführlich beforscht. Was bisher aber fehlt, ist eine Analyse der wissenschaftlichen und erkenntnistheoretischen Konzepte, die in der Phase der Institutionalisierung der Disziplin eingebracht wurden. Erst eine solche Analyse kann uns nämlich die Eigenheiten der weiteren disziplinären Entwicklung verständlich machen. Wie wir im Folgenden zeigen, wurde während ihrer Entstehungsphase auch intensiv über die Bedeutungshoheit der neuen Disziplin gerungen – mit Auswirkungen, die vermutlich bis heute anhalten.
Um eine solche Analyse durchführen zu können, wird hier – anders als bislang üblich –ein wissenschaftsinternalistischer Blick auf die Disziplin gewählt. Im Mittelpunkt stehen divergente politikwissenschaftliche Konzepte. Gemeint sind die verschiedenen Erklärungs- und Analysemodelle des Untersuchungsgegenstandes „Politik“. Wir können davon ausgehen, dass während der kritischen Institutionalisierungsphase der Disziplin, ungefähr zwischen 1965 und 1975, von verschiedenen Akteuren unterschiedliche Angebote gemacht wurden, wie „Politikwissenschaft“ als wissenschaftliche Disziplin in Österreich praktisch werden sollte.

Sociology and the Crisis of the Present

by Carl L Bankston

The creative American: Cold War salons, social science, and the cure for modern society

by Jamie Cohen-Cole

This essay examines how post–World War II Americans linked their understanding of domestic society and international... more This essay examines how post–World War II Americans linked their understanding of domestic society and international affairs by using a common lens of psychological and characterological analysis for both. That lens was fashioned by social scientists and developed to study conformity and its opposite, creative and autonomous selfhood. Creativity offered a means to achieve the liberal national society they desired. Social scientists managed their technical definitions of conformity and autonomy as a way of defining reasonable political sentiment. This essay details how, ultimately, the forms of self and sociality they advocated for America were grounded in the kinds of community and interpersonal interaction they valued in their own professional lives.

Thinking About Thinking in Cold War America

by Jamie Cohen-Cole

PhD, Princeton 2003

This dissertation examines normative and descriptive constructions of thinking in cold war America. It highlights how... more This dissertation examines normative and descriptive constructions of thinking in cold war America. It highlights how democratic thinking, academic thinking, and human thinking were interconnected. Social critics believed that American democracy depended on open-mined, flexible, autonomous, and creative thinking. In contrast, they held that the opposite characteristics—closed minded, narrow, rigid, and conformist thinking—typified authoritarian or prejudiced people. Citizens equipped with the right set of mental characteristics could also solve a set of problems that social critics identified in modern America. Where mass society endangered American individualism and threatened to alienate Americans both from one another and from the government, people possessing sufficient autonomy and creativity could ameliorate these problems and help America retain its democratic and individualistic nature.
The mental characteristics that made good citizens also made good intellectuals: both exhibited open-minded, flexible, and pluralist thinking. This preference for flexible cognitive traits appeared in methodological struggles across the social sciences from sociology to psychology and anthropology. It also led to disdain for disciplinary focus and widespread enthusiasm for interdisciplinary methods as social scientists found interdisciplinary study to be inherently valuable.
Intellectuals’ opinions about how they or their colleagues thought were thoroughly intertwined with their opinions about both human nature and democratic character. As a consequence, nominally objective scientific descriptions of normal human nature both informed and borrowed from normative visions of democratic character and exemplary academic thought. The emergence of the field of cognitive psychology was conducted in the most political of ways, involving the academic politics of right-thinking. Cognitivists and their behavioristic opponents struggled to capture the high-ground of true scientific thinking. Here the struggle was about which group of psychologists were better thinkers. Additionally, cognitive psychology’s very specific vision of human nature was a product of an academic community that often elided differences between right thinking and normal thinking. Cognitivists argued that humans are flexible and autonomous by comparing them implicitly to individualistic, democratic Americans and explicitly to flexible, creative scientists. As a consequence, the exemplary member of the academic community and the ideal American citizen became the universal model of human nature.

Laboratizing and Delaboratizing the World Subtitle: Changing Sociological Concepts for Places of Knowledge Production

by Michael Guggenheim

How has sociology framed places of knowledge production and what is the specific power of the laboratory for this... more How has sociology framed places of knowledge production and what is the specific power of the laboratory for this history? This article looks at how sociology and STS have historically framed the world as laboratory in three steps: First, in early sociology, the laboratory was an important metaphor to conceive of sociology as a scientific enterprise. In the 1950ies, the trend reversed and with the emergence of a ‘qualitative sociology’, sociology was seen in opposition to laboratory work. With the ascent of laboratory studies, the laboratory perspective was again applied to many fields, including sociology itself. Based on a definition of a laboratory as aiming at placeless knowledge and being inconsequential this article argues that the two waves of laboratorization were metaphorical and did not really turn the world into a laboratory. Instead, two alternative concepts, those of the unilatory and the locatory, are proposed to gain a more precise understanding of some of these metaphorical uses of the term laboratory.

Tradición y modernidad en el origen de la carrera de Ciencias Antropológicas de la Universidad de Buenos Aires

by Sergio Eduardo Visacovsky

Co-authored with Rosana Guber and Estela Gurevich. In: Redes, Revista de Estudios Sociales de la Ciencia, vol. IV, Nº10, octubre, 1997, pp.213-257. Centro de Estudios e Investigaciones, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes.

El objetivo del presente trabajo es mostrar que las carreras universitarias, como modos de producción y reproducción... more El objetivo del presente trabajo es mostrar que las carreras universitarias, como modos de producción y reproducción profesional de las prácticas científico-académicas, expresan
los proyectos socio-políticos bajo una lógica específica: son traducidos a conceptos, perspectivas y temáticas disciplinarias. En primer lugar, el trabajo se centra en el modo en que los protagonistas de la carrera de ciencias antropológicas construyeron su objeto disciplinario; cómo las transformaciones políticas e intelectuales participaron del mismo y en qué medida esto implicó condiciones de inserción, posicionamiento y disputas de legitimidad dentro de los límites de las ciencias sociales y humanas. En segundo lugar, se analizan diferentes aspectos de su temprana conformación académica, tales como: la resolución de creación, el perfil intelectual de los primeros profesores y los contenidos curriculares del primer plan de estudios. Finalmente, se postula una interpretación que dé cuenta de la vigencia y legitimidad de la disciplina antropológica en el ámbito porteño a fines de los cincuenta, basada en acuerdos compartidos entre las disciplinas del campo humanístico-social que excedieron las diferencias teórico-metodológicas y político-partidarias.

Fritz Heider's legacy: Celebrated insights, many of them misunderstood (2008)

by Bertram Malle

Malle, B. F. (2008). Fritz Heider’s legacy: Celebrated insights, many of them misunderstood. Social Psychology, 39, 163–173.

Democratic Governance - A Genealogy

by Mark Bevir

Local Government Studies 37 (2011), 3-17

This essay draws on my book, Democratic Governance (Princeton University Press, 2010), to provide a genealogy of... more This essay draws on my book, Democratic Governance (Princeton University Press, 2010), to provide a genealogy of governance and to explore its implications for democracy. My arguments can be quickly stated: governance rose and spread as a consequence of new modernist theories and the public sector reforms that were inspired by these theories; policy actors respond to the challenges of governance by supplementing representative institutions with yet more modernist expertise.

Exorcising Ghosts In the Age of Automation: United Nations Experts and Atoms for Peace

by Jacob Hamblin

L’appropriation différenciée du folklore par les sociétés savantes : la science républicaine rétive au folklore ?

by Gilles Laferté

By tracing folklore-related activities in Burgundy from the late nineteenth century until the Second World War, the... more By tracing folklore-related activities in Burgundy from the late nineteenth century until the Second World War, the paper seeks to understand the generational difference in the relationship of scholars to folklore studies. The Dijon Academy had little involvement in the domain while the Mâcon Academy brought together the leading regional folklore specialists who formed a local, legal and sometimes political, amateur elite. The main explanation for this lay in the role of Dijon University that educated a new generation of scholars in the social sciences of the period, Vidalian geography and the Annals school of history. Their education made them recalcitrant to local studies to which they preferred analytical rigour. It was not until the late 1930s and the scientific recharacterization of folklore that this new generation of scholars—employees in municipal cultural institutions or teachers—took up folklore studies.

Review L'Homme : Cherry Schrecker, La Communauté. Histoire Critique D'Un Concept Dans La Sociologie Anglo-Saxonne

by Samuel Lézé

in french

Les formes du voyage : cartes et espaces des guides de voyage

by Nicolas Verdier

Published on "In situ, revue des Patrimoines", n° 15

La relation entre cartes et guides est ancienne en France. Cet article interroge cette relation en s’intéressant... more La relation entre cartes et guides est ancienne en France. Cet article interroge cette relation en s’intéressant d’abord à la nature des cartes contenues dans les guides, puis essaie de mettre en avant la relation existant entre forme de la carte et forme du texte dans le guide. C’est principalement au travers de la relation aux cartes en bandes que la question est ici développée. Le corpus étudié commence au début du XVIIIe siècle pour s’achever à la fin du XXe siècle.

The relations between maps and guides are old in France. This article questions this relation by being first interested in the nature of maps contained in the guides, then try to put forward the relation existing in the form of the map and the form of the text in the guide. It is mainly through the relation with the maps in bands that the question is developed here. The studied corpus starts at the beginning of the XVIIIth century to end at the end of the XXth century.

Incident at Ziman Brothers: The politics of Gender and Race in a Pretoria Factory, 1934

by Jonathan Hyslop