Dissertation•
Disciplined reasoning: Styles of reasoning and the mainstream-heterodoxy divide in Swedish economics
01 Sep 2018-
TL;DR: The authors argue that the mainstream-heterodoxy divide is fruitfully understood in terms of the institutionalised stabilisation of a disciplinary style of reasoning, and show how economists understand their scientific approach and its merits.
Abstract: Economics is one of the most influential social science disciplines, with a high level of internal consent around a common theoretical and methodological approach to economic analysis. However, marginalised schools of thought have increasingly unified under the term “heterodox” economics, with their critical stance towards the “neoclassical mainstream” as common denominator. This has spawned debates among scholars about how to understand the nature of the mainstream-heterodoxy divide in economics.This thesis sets out to explain how such a common approach to science is generalised and stabilised in modern economics, and how this process is related to heterodoxy. Grounded in the sociology of science, it aims first to provide an empirical account of the mainstream-heterodoxy dynamics in Swedish economics, and second, to contribute to theory development. Drawing on the literature on distinct styles of reasoning in the history of science, I develop a theoretical framework of relational disciplinary styles of reasoning, which is used to analyse two bodies of empirical material from Swedish economics. The first is an in-depth interview study with researchers in economics, and the second is a document study of expert evaluation reports from the hiring of professors of economics at four of the top Swedish universities during 25 years. Through the two empirical studies, the fine-grained qualitative material provides an insight into the ways economists understand their discipline and the character of proper knowledge production.I argue that the mainstream-heterodoxy divide is fruitfully understood in terms of the institutionalised stabilisation of a disciplinary style of reasoning, and show how economists understand their scientific approach and its merits. The maintenance of the style of reasoning is the achievement of the thought collective of economists, where boundaries are constructed in relation to contesting heterodox economics and to other scientific disciplines. I show how the disciplinary style with its conception of good science and the notion of a core of the discipline is linked to the reproduction of disciplinary boundaries. I trace how this plays out through shifting quality evaluation practices, and show how top journal rankings have become a powerful judgement device which links the hierarchical ranking of top journals to the notion of a disciplinary core, and effectively functions as a mechanism of disciplinary stabilisation. In conclusion, I argue that these processes form a self-stabilising system in which the disciplinary style of reasoning and its boundaries is reproduced, with potential implications for how we understand intellectual dynamics and pluralism. (Less)
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TL;DR: To study the operational behaviour of λ-terms, this work will use the denotational (mathematical) approach to choose a space of semantics values, or denotations, where terms are to be interpreted.
Abstract: To study the operational behaviour of λ-terms, we will use the denotational (mathematical) approach. A denotational semantics for a language is based on the choice of a space of semantics values, or denotations, where terms are to be interpreted. Choosing a space with nice mathematical properties can help in proving the semantic properties of terms, since to this aim standard mathematical techniques can be used.
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Journal Article•
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01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: The handbook of science and technology studies is universally compatible with any devices to read and is available in the authors' digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly.
Abstract: Thank you for reading handbook of science and technology studies. As you may know, people have look numerous times for their chosen books like this handbook of science and technology studies, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than reading a good book with a cup of coffee in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some infectious virus inside their desktop computer. handbook of science and technology studies is available in our digital library an online access to it is set as public so you can get it instantly. Our book servers hosts in multiple countries, allowing you to get the most less latency time to download any of our books like this one. Kindly say, the handbook of science and technology studies is universally compatible with any devices to read.
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TL;DR: The authors argued that economics tends to be dominated by a single approach or reflect a pluralism of approaches, and argued that historically it has alternated between the two, and interpreted the division between orthodoxy and heterodoxy in terms of a core-periphery distinction.
Abstract: This paper examines change on the economics research frontier, and asks whether the current competition between new research programs may be supplanted by a new single dominant approach in the future The paper discusses whether economics tends to be dominated by a single approach or reflect a pluralism of approaches, and argues that historically it has alternated between the two It argues that orthodoxy usually emerges from heterodoxy, and interprets the division between orthodoxy and heterodoxy in terms of a core-periphery distinction Regarding recent economics, the paper maps out two different types of combinations of new research programs as being synchronic or diachronic in nature It treats the new research programs as a new kind of heterodoxy, and asks how a new orthodoxy might arise out of this new heterodoxy and traditional heterodoxy It discusses this question by advancing two views regarding how the two different types of combinations in the new research programs might consolidate along the lines of three shared commitments with traditional heterodoxy to form a new orthodoxy in economics
154 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors document the demise of credibility of claims for the existence of high fluxes of gravitational radiation, based on interview fieldwork conducted in 1975 and build upon earlier work reported in 1975.
Abstract: Working from within the relativist perspective, this paper documents the demise of credibility of claims for the existence of high fluxes of gravitational radiation. The study is based on interview fieldwork conducted in 1975 and builds upon earlier work reported in 1975. Criticisms of the positive claims are presented schematically and shown to be permeable to alternative interpretations. The actions of one of the major critics are examined in detail and it is suggested that his contribution to the debate is best seen as a - successful - attempt to render alternative interpretations less credible. What was seen by many as a minimal technical contribution was thus made into a decisive experimental account. The case is discussed in terms of the metaphor of 'interpretative charity'.
150 citations
TL;DR: For example, this paper pointed out that rationality has been a resource rather than a topic of analysis, and pointed out the need to understand the actual practice of rational action in real business-firm and market operations.
Abstract: Rationality is a conspicuous yet neglected phenomenon. It has received much attention from philosophers and some social scientists, who have treated rationality as the hallmark of science, of economic action, or of modernity in general. Yet with all this attention, rationality has been conspicuously taken for granted, and its taken-for-grantedness has licensed a neglect of the practical activity of rational action. In other words, rationality has been a resource rather than a topic of analysis. To be sure, some fields have long been preoccupied with specifying the rules of rationality which are capable of unifying-or reconstructinghuman endeavors within a domain of activity; but they have done so at the cost of neglecting to seek to understand the actual practice of these activities. For example, philosophers of science have relegated the vast territories of the "real" behavior of scientists to a marginal existence, in exchange for the doubtful benefits of the rational reconstruction of scientific theory choice. Economic theorists appear perennially involved in searching for "indisputable" definitions of rational choice which can serve as algorithmic devices in economic modeling, but they leave unexamined essential empirical aspects of real business-firm and market operations.! In a paraphrase of Hegel, Bruno Ingrao has recently described the content of economic theory as a "representation of rationality as it is in its eternal essence, before the creation of nature and of a finite mind" (1989, 120). As the many controversies over the content and definition of scientific and economic reason suggest, rationality is an interesting topic of investigation. But must this investigation be limited, as often in economic theory, to the mental and computational specification of rational calculation and constrained optimization as required by formal models to
149 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss the characteristics and challenges of peer review from three different perspectives: a social dynamics perspective defining peer review as an important control mechanism in the research community; an uncertainty perspective focusing on the inherent uncertainty in judging research quality; and an organizational perspective focusing the effects of different ways of organizing peer review.
Abstract: Characteristics and challenges of peer review are elucidated from three different perspectives: a social dynamics perspective defining peer review as an important control mechanism in the research community; an uncertainty perspective focusing on the inherent uncertainty in judging research quality: and an organisational perspective focusing on the effects of different ways of organising peer review. Findings from a broad set of empirical studies are used. Peer review often has some conservative and risk-minimising aspects, which may disfavour interdisciplinary and non-conventional research. When the aim is to actively promote interdisciplinary or other kinds of non-conventional research, the involved peer-review system consequently needs to be adjusted to a more risk-taking mode. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.
147 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that the most promising challenge awaits qualitative researchers who are willing to work in relation to the representational tension of the border between narrative and ethnography, not reinforce its separation, and point out that storytellers do not always recognize or know that what they describe is patterned and might be articulated differently at other times and places.
Abstract: RECENT PROJECTS HAVE DRAWN US into analytic terrain that defies the emerging border between narrative and ethnography.This journal’s celebration of the turn of the century affords us the opportunity to reflect on the border as we consider ethnography’s past in relation to its future. We believe that the most promising challenge awaits qualitative researchers who are willing to work in relation to the representational tension of the border, not reinforce its separation. Narrative analysis refers loosely to the examination of the diverse stories, commentaries, and the conversations engaged in everyday life. Ethnography points broadly to the careful and usually long-term observation of a group of people to reveal the patterns of social life that are locally experienced. Ethnography presents details of living not always evident in stories and other accounts, which are notable from the “disinterested” perusal of interactional and narrative occasions. If narratives are best conveyed by those whose experiences they reflect, storytellers do not always recognize or know that what they describe is patterned and might be articulated differently at other times and places. Distinctive social patterning is highlighted by the comparative inclinations of ethnographers. In the practice of fieldwork, there is considerable overlap between narrative and ethnography. Fieldworkers traditionally have observed and recorded informants’ accounts as they have also documented indigenous social worlds. William Foote Whyte’s classic urban ethnography, Street Corner Society (1943), not only reports patterns of social interaction composed of leadership, followership, and their associated activities and sentiments in the street life of an American city, but simultaneously treats us to the narrative renditions of habitues. Recently,
141 citations
"Disciplined reasoning: Styles of re..." refers background in this paper
...The positivist approach treats the interviewee as a “vessel-of-answers” (Gubrium and Holstein 1999, 2001b; Marvasti, Holstein, and Gubrium 2012) and the interviewer as a neutral “miner” of information (Kvale 2007:19)....
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