Knowledge Boundaries and the History of Sociology

Abstract

This chapter draws on and introduces some of the more influential theoretical knowledge boundary concepts that have been developed in the intersecting areas of the sociology of knowledge, science and technology studies, and the history of science over previous decades. It is argued that together these concepts provide a rich analytical toolbox for a deepened understanding of how knowledge boundaries have, in different ways, shaped and reshaped the history of sociology. In the first part of the chapter, five of these concepts – boundary-work, boundary object, boundary organization, trading zone, and co-production – are introduced and discussed, while the second part provides empirical examples of their application in the form of four short, chronologically ordered, episodes from the history of sociology. Although the boundary concepts differ in important respects, they also complement each other. The first two episodes show how knowledge boundaries have determined not only separation and exclusion, but also communication and inclusion in the early history of sociology. The third episode shows how the concepts can be combined to highlight various aspects and analytical levels of one and the same phenomenon, whereas the fourth and final episode shows how the disciplinary history of sociology itself has been used as a powerful tool for exclusion. These insights call for a historiographically reflexive approach to the history of sociology and its boundaries.KeywordsKnowledge boundariesHistory of sociologyBoundary-workBoundary objectBoundary organizationTrading zoneCo-production