Knowledge production and the public interest

Abstract

The quintessential image of knowledge production in the social sciences is the soli tary scholar: an academic working and publishing independently. In the physical and biological sciences the image is one of teams, where research is a collaborative effort and scholarly work acknowledges the contributions of many individuals (Knorr-Cetina, 1981). This pattern of collaborative work is now also occurring in the social sciences, such as in sociology, where the number of articles with multiple authors has increased substantially over the last 40 years (see e.g., Babchuk, Keith, & Peters, 1999; Crane, 1969; and Moody, 2004).2 These dual conceptions of academic work continue to charac terize much of sociological scholarship. However, there is a third model, the collective, in which experts of notable prestige are brought together by an independent sponsor to volunteer their time to produce reports with the purpose of shaping public agendas on specific topics. Whereas scholars examining the sociology of knowledge have paid con siderable attention to the work of the solitary scholar and collaborations, few have fo cused on the role of collectives in knowledge production (Merton, 1957; Moody, 2004). The knowledge produced by collectives is similar in some respects to that produced by solitary and collaborative research efforts; in other respects it is different. Collectives can be differentiated from other modes of knowledge production by their (1) objectives; (2) support and direction received from sponsoring organizations; (3) methods of schol arship; (4) target audiences; and (5) incentives for participation. This form of policy oriented knowledge production for academic and non-academic audiences is particu larly important given arguments for rekindling interest in public sociology and fostering