Sociological Silhouettes: the Archaeology and Demography of Knowledge

This dissertation extends prior work on the evolution of the social sciences from two unconventional angles. First, I dig up significant “deaths” of cited works in sociology's history, and use citation context analysis and expert interviews to conduct rudimentary autopsies, to understand the mechanisms operative in their loss of recognition (Chapters 1 & 2). This inquiry is inductive, yet theoretically driven, looking to uncover overlooked mechanisms and historical developments, and documents former participants' perceptions of sociology’s forgotten past. Chapter 3 employs a demographic approach to study the life-courses of cited works, cited authors, publishing authors, and title terminology across five social sciences (anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology). The aim is to advance the sociology of sociology and science by creating informative artifacts from sociology's citation and publication history. By producing more artifacts than interpretations, this dissertation not only contributes to existing knowledge but invites deeper exploration into the intertwined evolution of social sciences.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D., Sociology

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctor of Philosophy

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Sociology

Grantor

Cornell University

Year dc:date.issued

2023

Author dc:creator

• McGail, Alec

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Macy, Michael
• Bensel, Richard

• demographics of knowledge
• inductive
• mixed-methods
• sociology of knowledge
• sociology of sociology

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

http://doi.org/10.7298/ftkt-de94

Dc Identifier Other

ProQuest Submission ID: 14028
ProQuest Publication ID: 30688259

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:ecommons.cornell.edu:1813/115722