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Reconceptualizing Knowledge Accumulation in Sociology

The American sociologist, 2006-07, Vol.37 (2), p.57-66 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

Transaction Publishers 2006 ;ISSN: 0003-1232 ;EISSN: 1936-4784 ;DOI: 10.1007/s12108-006-1005-9 ;CODEN: ASLGAV

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  • Title:
    Reconceptualizing Knowledge Accumulation in Sociology
  • Author: Abbott, Andrew
  • Subjects: Bibliographic citations ; Binomials ; Conceptual frameworks ; Cumulativity ; Data analysis ; Empiricism ; History of Sociology ; Human behavior ; Knowledge ; Methodology ; Normativity ; Population ecology ; Social forces ; Social life ; Social sciences ; Sociological Research ; Sociological theory ; Sociology ; Wheels
  • Is Part Of: The American sociologist, 2006-07, Vol.37 (2), p.57-66
  • Description: The paradox of the high amount & diverse descriptive data that is now available to the sociological discipline versus the foundational approaches that differ little from a century ago is explored in terms of the puzzles & questions in thinking about the cumulation of knowledge. Discussion of the modes of cumulativity as an empirical issue delineates the reinvention of ideas in articles, faddism & replacement, exhaustion, & generational paradigms. Theoretical questions of cumulativity propose an idea of science as a computational system of optimization, rather than the piling up or improving methodologies. The nature of cumulation is described as the desire to believe that the personal scale of our lives can be part of a larger whole, & then becomes our name for the particular type & level of directionality that we manage to identify with. The author's computational model is related to von Neumann's cogs in a giant calculating machine & the neural net view or random processor, to conclude that we are not the heroes of discovery, but rather random explorers in Borges' endless, labyrinthine library. References. J. Harwell
  • Publisher: Washington: Transaction Periodicals Consortium
  • Language: English
  • Identifier: ISSN: 0003-1232
    EISSN: 1936-4784
    DOI: 10.1007/s12108-006-1005-9
    CODEN: ASLGAV
  • Source: AUTh Library subscriptions: ProQuest Central
    Alma/SFX Local Collection
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