Social Knowledge Shops and the Construction of the Canon

Daniel Menchik, University of Arizona

As an alternative to the dominant individual- and school-centered perspectives for understanding the production of social science knowledge, a work-centered perspective is proposed that shines light on internal interdependencies and external client ties that can shape the direction of scholarship. The paper argues that the analogy of the shop can profitably be used to theorize, and then inform and critically examine, continuity and change in the work of the canon. The analogy of the shop, especially as it incorporates attention to scholars’ relationships with those with divergent occupational projects, has particular value for capturing how individuals’ decisions about knowledge production are shaped by external influences. The payoff of using this analogy is demonstrated with an archive- and interview-based study of parallel sociology shops studying similar subjects (with different impacts) at Chicago and Columbia.

No extended abstract or paper available

 Presented in Session 115. Scholarly Orthopraxy/Orthodoxy: Re/Constructing Norms and Canons