Book•
Science of Science and Reflexivity
01 Jan 2004-
TL;DR: Bourdieu's "Science of Science and Reflexivity" as mentioned in this paper argues that science is in danger of becoming a handmaiden to biotechnology, medicine, genetic engineering, and military research that it risks falling under the control of industrial corporations that seek to exploit it for monopolies and profit.
Abstract: Over the last four decades, the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu produced one of the most imaginative and subtle bodies of social theory of the postwar era. When he died in 2002, he was considered to be a thinker on a par with Foucault, Barthes, and Lacan a public intellectual as influential to his generation as Sartre was to his. "Science of Science and Reflexivity" will be welcomed as a companion volume to Bourdieu's now seminal "An Invitation to Reflexive Sociology." In this posthumous work, Bourdieu declares that science is in danger of becoming a handmaiden to biotechnology, medicine, genetic engineering, and military research that it risks falling under the control of industrial corporations that seek to exploit it for monopolies and profit. Science thus endangered can become detrimental to mankind. The line between pure and applied science, therefore, must be subjected to intense theoretical scrutiny. Bourdieu's goals in "Science of Science and Reflexivity" are to identify the social conditions in which science develops in order to reclaim its objectivity and to rescue it from relativism and the forces that might exploit it. In the grand tradition of scientific reflections on science, Bourdieu provides a sociological analysis of the discipline as something capable of producing transhistorical truths; he presents an incisive critique of the main currents in the study of science throughout the past half century; and he offers a spirited defense of science against encroaching political and economic forces. A masterful summation of the principles underlying Bourdieu's oeuvre and a memoir of his own scientific journey, "Science of Science and Reflexivity" is a capstone to one of the most important and prodigious careers in the field of sociology."
Citations
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TL;DR: This article examined the institutionalization of public finance as a subfield of economics in American universities from the founding of professional academic economics departments in the 1880s through the eve of the Great Depression.
Abstract: This paper examines the institutionalization of public finance as a subfield of economics in American universities from the founding of professional academic economics departments in the 1880’s through the eve of the Great Depression. To do so, we examine the development of a community of scholars recognized as specialists in public finance and the professionalization of public finance as a distinct field within economics. This includes examination of the subject’s definition, its boundaries, and the types of analyses undertaken. Academic training, including courses and readings, at Columbia, Chicago, Harvard, and Wisconsin are compared.
6 citations
Cites background from "Science of Science and Reflexivity"
...However, as Bourdieu (2004) argues, defining a subfield requires more....
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...Lacking subtly, Veblen published an English translation of Cohn’s System der Finanzwissenschaft as The Science of Finance (1895); H....
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...…of the group; and secondly, the constitution of a group recognized as socially distinct and a social identity…through the creation of scientific associations” (Bourdieu 2004, p. 50) This takes two forms: publishing in credentialed journals and the establishment of a professional organization....
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TL;DR: Wittgenstein's philosophical method and later writings help psychologists to identify and work through "pictures" evoked and used in our linguistic practices especially when these representations a....
Abstract: Wittgenstein’s philosophical method and later writings help psychologists to identify and work through “pictures” evoked and used in our linguistic practices especially when these representations a...
6 citations
Cites background from "Science of Science and Reflexivity"
...Articles such as Brocki and Wearden’s (2006) critical analysis of IPA in health research also provide a valuable resource because they articulate substantive differences between IPA and GT methods....
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...Articles such as Brocki and Wearden’s (2006) critical analysis of IPA in health research also provide a valuable resource because they articulate substantive differences between IPA and GT methods. Frost and colleagues (2010) provide one of the few rigorous examples of multiple practitioners using plural qualitative methods to analyse the same text....
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TL;DR: The analysis reveals generalized grounds of social space of Russian physics institutions: principles of visibility and scientific capital and provides a map of field of physics in Russia.
Abstract: This paper investigates the social space of physics research institutions. Scientific capital is a well-known concept for measuring and assessing the accumulated recognition and the specific scientific power developed by Pierre Bourdieu. The scientific capital of a physics research institution manifests itself as a reputation, a high-profile name in the field of physics, symbols of academic recognition, and scientific status. Using citation statistics from the Web of Science Core Collection and sociological data of dedicated survey "The Monitoring of the Labor Market for Highly Qualified R&D Personnel" we construct the social space of Russian physics institutions. The analysis reveals generalized grounds of social space of Russian physics institutions: principles of visibility and scientific capital. The study highlights internal differentiation of physics institutions on three groups ("major", "high energy", and "secondary" institutions). The social space of physics research institutions provides a map of field of physics in Russia. This research may be a useful starting point for developing a more comprehensive study of the field of physics.
6 citations
Cites background from "Science of Science and Reflexivity"
...…or a structured field of social forces [which imposes itself on scientific ‘‘agents, that to say the isolated scientists, teams or laboratories’’ (Bourdieu 2004, p. 33)], 2. a locus of a competitive struggle for resources, or capital, takes place between unequally positioned agents, 3. the…...
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...According to Bourdieu, SC is a configuration of active properties (active in the sense that the properties represent a field of forces) that provide the agent with authority, recognition, influence, and power in a given scientific field (Bourdieu 2004, pp. 55–58)....
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Dissertation•
01 Jul 2015
TL;DR: A theoretical framework proposed that cancer survivors use SM as a supportive mechanism to attain their new health-related normality to adapt to their new lives post-cancer.
Abstract: This thesis examined self-management (SM) strategies of cancer survivors from pre-diagnosis, through treatment and into survivorship. A healthcare definition of SM as a lifestyle modifying behaviour potentially impacting on cancer survivors’ health, wellbeing and quality of life (QoL) was given. Due to a lack of existing literature, a systematic review and meta-analyses investigating whether complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) improves cancer survivors’ QoL was undertaken, finding moderate to poor quality evidence of this.
A mixed methods study explored SM patterns over time. The questionnaire study examined the prevalence and distribution of SM patterns, finding SM uptake was highest in survivorship. Subgroup analyses found SM uptake was highest in breast cancer and chemotherapy respondents, whilst correlation analysis revealed significant associations between SM uptake and both QoL and internal health locus of control (HLC), but none between SM uptake and work ability.
The interview study explored how and why cancer survivors made decisions about incorporating SM practices into their daily lives. The concept of normality in survivorship emerged, with cancer survivors assembling a new health-related normality to adapt to their new lives post-cancer. A theoretical framework proposed that cancer survivors use SM as a supportive mechanism to attain their new health-related normality.
6 citations
TL;DR: A case study of career choices of political scientists in Argentina is presented in this paper, where the authors explore how scholars in peripheral fields use knowledge from central fields to structure their academic careers.
Abstract: Sensitive to the differences between centers and peripheries of knowledge production, this article explores how scholars in peripheral fields use knowledge from central fields to structure their academic careers. The article presents the findings of a case study of career choices of political scientists in Argentina. In order to understand the interplay between foreign knowledge and local strategies of enacting networks, this article focuses on the beginning of academic careers. At this early stage, political scientists in Argentina usually have to make a decision whether to stay in the country or go abroad for postgraduate education. Relying on positioning theory and recent developments in Science and Technology Studies, we identified two alternative positioning strategies. Those who stay in Argentina tend to hoard as many scholarly positions as possible, enacting local networks oriented towards teaching. Scholars who go abroad enact networks with international dimensions, in the process enrolling persons and objects, though not always successfully. Scholars with international experience tend to be research oriented, and they mention the working conditions abroad as particularly attractive. We show the extent to which these findings challenge some views of centers and periphery and highlight the active role of scholars in peripheral scientific fields.
6 citations