社会建构论在科学知识社会学研究中的应用

社会建构论作为一种新的理论体系,是在科学知识社会学(SSK)产生和发展的过程中形成的,它强调社会因素对科学知识的建构作用,主张从社会学的角度来分析科学知识。社会建构论能够在科学知识和科学活动中得到充分运用,并正式成为一种科学观,成为核心方法论,这离不开科学知识社会学,而科学知识社会学的发展也得益于社会建构论这一方法论。     

用科学重建“社会”的权威--论涂尔干《社会学方法的准则》的主旨

《社会学方法的准则》是涂尔干思想体系的基石之作。通过证明“社会”是一种自成一体的、客观实在的“物”，有其自身的存在方式与运动法则，这本著作不仅奠定了社会学的学科正当性，更为涂尔干整个社会重建计划确定了理论正当性。文章从涂尔干思想的总体框架出发，基于细致的文本剖析，梳理了社会作为“物”的诸种属性及各类“社会持续在场物”的具体形式，呈现了涂尔干为构建“道德科学”所做的艰辛努力。     

宗教的社会功能:一种社会学的解读——再读《宗教生活的基本形式》

作为古典三大社会学家之一的涂尔干,是唯实论最著名代表人物之一。其基本研究对象是社会事实,强调社会对个人的决定性作用。秩序何以可能,或者说社会与个人之间的关系,这是他一生关注的重点。这不仅体现在《社会学方法论准则》实证的研究方法,也体现在著作《自杀论》、《社会分工论》中。在《宗教生活基本形式》中,涂尔干试图为道德社会的构建寻求来源,并从图腾、氏族、宗教等知识范畴来探寻社会与个人的关系,从而为社会秩序的构建提供思想的铺垫。     

作为理论与方法的知识社会学论略

知识社会学既是一种关于实际思维受社会或存在决定的理论,也是一种历史―社会学的研究方法。本文以曼海姆的思想为例,阐发了知识社会学的主要思想来源、理论指向及其方法论特征。运用知识社会学方法探讨某一文化传统的形成是一种重要的研究方式,它能够为具体研究带来新的路向。     

社会学方法的规则:来自涂尔干的观点

涂尔干从观察社会现象、区分规则和不规则现象、确定社会类型、解释和检验社会现象等规则方面论述了社会学研究方法,其方法坚持的是社会唯实论和社会整体观的原则,为社会学规定了独立的研究领域和研究方向,对后人影响极大。本文主要论述涂尔干社会学方法论上的观点,对其"社会学方法的规则"作了概述,并进行了简评。     

冯友兰论哲学方法

冯友兰以“思想的反思和思想的觉解”哲学观系统规范了哲学的深刻内涵,并用“宇宙论、人生论、知识论”三位一体构架出鲜明的现代化色彩。以“无用之大用”和“内圣外王”推出哲学自身的特征和功能。在此基础上论述了哲学与科学的区别与联系。在哲学方法上提出“正的方法”和“负的方法”及“新理学的方法”,力图缓解科学实证和直觉证悟的内在紧张,是理性主义和非理性主义的相互结合。这种方法论的视角值得借鉴。     

学术与生活走向统一还是对立——读“《社会学的想象力》附录:论治学之道”有感

在《社会学的想象力》一书中,米尔斯在深入批判宏大理论与抽象经验主义两种研究风格的同时,建构了一座新的方法论思想大厦。米尔斯的方法论思想的意义是双重的,即学术性的和道德性的。从学术上来说,米尔斯完整地给我们呈现了一套如何做社会学研究的方法;从道德上来说,米尔斯企图唤醒社会学者应有的价值关怀之情,自觉地承担起自己的学术职责而直面当代社会的实质性问题[1]。     

论江泽民对邓小平理论科学方法的继承和创新

江泽民在把握实践和理论创新的进程中,形成了一整套创新思维的科学方法,为全党树立了光辉榜样。研究总结这些科学方法,对我们贯彻落实党的十六大精神,在新世纪高举邓小平理论伟大旗帜,全面贯彻“三个代表”重要思想,与时俱进,努力开创建设有中国特色社会主义事业新局面,具有十分重要的意义。江泽民对邓小平理论科学方法的创新思想是一个包括了一系列相互联系的理论观点和方法论的体系。江泽民的创新思想方法论之一:强调完整、准确地掌握邓小平理论的科学体系要完整地、准确地理解邓小平理论,掌握它的科学体系。从历史方面看邓小平理论的…     

科学的方法论:理论与时俱进的动因

江 泽民同志在“七一”讲话中谈到 :“马克思主义是我们立党立国的根本指导思想 ,是全国各族人民团结奋斗的共同理论基础。”随后 ,他强调指出 :“马克思主义具有与时俱进的理论品质。”这个论断是在总结马克思主义理论的全部特点与优点的基础上作出的科学概括。一科学的马克思主义方法论决定了马克思主义理论是与时俱进的理论。无论是马克思主义方法论体系中的基本方法 ,还是具体方法 ,都是马克思主义理论不断创新和发展的动力和原因。首先 ,马克思主义方法论的基本方法———唯物辩证法是马克思主义与时俱进的重要原因。发展的观点是唯物…     

费孝通社区研究方法考析

费孝通继承了吴文藻社区研究概念,吸取欧美社会学的精华,发展了社区研究方法。首先,构建应用类型社区比较研究方法,不仅开阔了社区研究的视野,而且在一定程度上深化了人们对中国社会发展及其现代化道路的认识和了解;其次,开创了从实地社区研究转变为社会结构分析的先河,为人们提供了更全面、更深刻地认识中国基本国情的方法;第三,引用社会人类学的实地调查方法,研究中国现社区制度与经济生活,使社会人类学成为一种名符其实的应用科学。这些研究方法的创新,在国际社会学界奠定了社会学中国学派的基础。     

论科学发展观的理论内蕴及其重大意义

科学发展观坚持了唯物史观的基本原理,创新了马克思主义社会发展理论,是指导我们全面建设和谐社会和现代化建设的理论指南。科学发展观是解放和发展生产力的发展观,是造福人民的发展观,表明我党对于人类社会发展规律和共产党执政规律认识的深化。     

试析曼海姆知识社会学理论

曼海姆通过对现代认识论与心理学研究问题的分析,提出了以环境决定知识和群体知识决定个人知识等观点为核心的知识社会学理论。他认为以往知识理论都是政党政治的产物,而知识社会学建立的目的是为了建构一门超党派、为人类服务的纯客观的知识体系。尽管他的知识社会学理论深化了存在论向度的知识问题研究,但由于其对社会问题把握缺失总体性综合式研究思路与方法,因而显得抽象、空洞并难以实现。     

Knowledge Construction in Public Administration: A Discourse Analysis of Public Value

Public administration is a relatively young field with a growing academic community. Against the background of enduring discussions about theory and increasing research output and diversification within the field, the authors apply the sociology of knowledge approach to discourse that combines discourse theories and a social constructionist tradition to the exemplary case of “public value” research. The authors scrutinize 50 articles from 12 journals over 18 years to trace the development of public value as a concept in public administration research. Drawing from this exemplary case, they develop propositions and propose a framework for knowledge construction that is uniquely characterized as public administration. From the anchor points of manageability, economization, and democratic accountability, the authors develop a framework for analyzing and investigating knowledge development in other concepts such as network governance, representative bureaucracy, and coproduction.     

Ethics and the unintended consequences of social research: A perspective from the sociology of science

It is argued that successful social science requires the development of a social ethic or sense of research responsibility. An examination of impediments to ethical reflection in sociology suggests that an individualistic orientation is ineffective in coping with the unintended consequences of social research. Such consequences can be particularly harmful in the sociology of science where policy research and governmental support for its production often entails an indiscriminate advocacy of knowledge. Such advocacy raises anew questions of the power of scientific knowledge, the definition of client-professional relationships, and the collection of data which may not only violate the intent of individuals and groups supplying information, but may undermine the credibility of sociology itself.An early version of this paper was presented at the Sixth Annual Alpha Kappa Delta Sociological Research Symposium, Richmond, Virginia, February 19–21, 1976.     

POLICY RESEARCH AS SOCIAL SCIENCE: OUTFLANKING THE VALUE DILEMMA

Social scientists fear that policy research compromises their objectivity. As a result, policy science is becoming a separate discipline which is accorded lower status that other fields of social inquiry. However, the history, sociology and psychology of science show that the elaboration of robust social theory would be aided by a more intimate relation between policy research and academic social science than currently obtains. The traditional canons of value freedom, which have been invoked to justify the independence of social science from policy, misrepresent the relation between facts and values in science. Objective knowledge is consequent on dispute and triangulation by a many-valued community of fallible social scientists; but it does not eventuate from consensual value neutralism. Social knowledge interacts with social values to change phenomena our theories represent. This self-restructuring characteristic of social events warrants singular attention by social scientists. Policy researchers are in a particularly opportune position to provide that attention.     

Wisdom in Public Administration: Looking for a Sociology of Wise Practice

This article explores a sociological account of practical wisdom in public administrations. Very little research on contemporary applications of wisdom exists, and what research there is has a cognitive bias, largely ignoring sociology. For public organizations to create the conditions for wise practice within themselves and within individual administrators, an understanding of the social relational structures and processes that build and sustain practical wisdom is crucial. Furthermore, given that there is an aesthetic dimension to practical wisdom, an aesthetics-based approach to sociology of organizational wisdom provides a useful starting point in this sociological project. Aesthetics raises important issues of communicative action and discourse that address social relations and their structures and processes. Finally, a research agenda that explores these structural and processual issues in public administration is canvassed.     

Die Qualität von demokratischen Regimen. Zur Erklärung der politischen Performanz in Italien und Indien durch Robert Putnam und Patrick Heller

Long-term processes of democratization have brought about a great number of states with democratic regimes. Therefore, political sociology has to focus in its research on the determinants of the quality of democracies. This article compares two theoretical perspectives: first, Robert Putnam’s attempt to explain the political performance in the Italian regions by the strength of their civil society and their social capital and secondly, Patrick Heller’s study about the Indian state of Kerala, which underlines much more the importance of the mobilization and organization of the lower classes and the functioning of the state apparatus. An empirical analysis of the determinants of the social development of the 15 largest Indian states and further studies in political sociology indicate a greater plausibility of Heller’s approach. Therefore, Putnam’s core concepts of social capital and civil society are reconstructed in a concluding theoretical discussion so that a connection to Heller’s theses and to other fields of research in the social sciences becomes possible.     

Tear Your Mask, and Have it Too: A Reply to Peter Baehr

Peter Baehr highly praises Berger’s contribution to sociology, and yet sharply criticises his claim that unmasking or debunking is he signature method of sociology. Baehr hold such method of enquiry to be dangerously corrosive and in tension with the humanist intentions of Berger. I largely agree with this critique, but I have doubts that a viable alternative could be developed within the framework of the social sciences. Thus, I would suggest that Berger was right in linking unmasking/debunking with the humanist enterprise, despite the negative implications highlighted by Baehr.     

The Sacred,Social Creativity and the State

Abstract

This paper explores the specific contribution of a strand of contemporary French social theory founded by Cornelius Castoriadis and Claude Lefort to the under standing of human power. It formulates a conception of power that transcends its definitions in terms of physical coercion or institutionalised violence to reveal the way power is creative and institutes the social. Its reflection on the cultural nature of political power and it role in society is shown to extend the pioneering reflection of Durkheim's sociology, especially as regards the homology that exists between religion and politics. The social role performed by the state explored by Durkheim prefigures Gauchet's theory of the state, which builds on Lefort's work. Gauchet's theory can be said to elaborate a critical synthesis of the two stands of Durkheim's work: the sociology of religion and the sociology of the modern state. This synthesis raises questions on the role played by the European state in the development of individualism, in both its political and economic manifestations.     

What Is Sociology’s Contribution Beyond the Humanities and Other Social Sciences?

Invitation to Sociology makes known that sociology is a coherent and value-added academic discipline. In exploring the continuing relevance of Invitation to Sociology, the time is ripe to reconsider sociology as a value-added intellectual enterprise. This paper answers this question: What does sociology have to offer beyond what the humanities and its sister social sciences already provide? This paper answers this question by identifying the four elements that compose the sociological tradition. These elements are social action; embeddedness; social problems; and social construction. I argue that these elements are more pronounced in sociology than in any other academic discipline, and hence contribute to the value-added character of sociology.