Merton's Ideas Research Articles

A dynamic and multifunctional account of middle-range theories.

This article develops a novel account of middle-range theories for combining theoretical and empirical analysis in explanatory sociology. I first revisit Robert K. Merton's original ideas on middle-range theories and identify a tension between his developmental approach to middle-range theorizing that recognizes multiple functions of theories in sociological research and his static definition of the concept of middle-range theory that focuses only on empirical testing of theories. Drawing on Merton's ideas on theorizing and recent discussions on mechanism-based explanations, I argue that this tension can be resolved by decomposing a middle-range theory into three interrelated and evolving components that perform different functions in sociological research: (i) a conceptual framework about social phenomena that is a set of interrelated concepts that evolve in close connection with empirical analysis; (ii) a mechanism schema that is an abstract and incomplete description of a social mechanism; and (iii) a cluster of all mechanism-based explanations of social phenomena that are based on the particular mechanism schema. I show how these components develop over time and how they serve different functions in sociological theorizing and research. Finally, I illustrate these ideas by discussing Merton's theory of the Matthew effect in science and its more recent applications in sociology.

Turner on Merton

Stephen Turner complains about weaknesses of Robert K. Merton's teachings without noticing that these are common. He puts down Merton's ideas despite his innovations, on the ground that they are not successful and not sufficiently revolutionary. The criteria by which he condemns Merton are too vague and too high. Merton's merit is in his having put the sociology of science on the map and drawn attention to the egalitarianism that was prominent in classical science and that is now diminished.

Home on the Range

This article introduces the special issue on middle-range theory in science and technology studies (STS), providing the background to its production and reviewing different notions of “middle.” It begins with Merton's ideas about middle-range theory as a way of moving beyond the production of either descriptions or theories of everything. Instead of seeing the middle as the space between the theoretical imagination and the detailed depiction of everyday practices, the authors outline three ways of thinking about the middle range: as an adjective, the closest to Merton's conception; as a noun, the liminal place between theories, audiences, and levels; and as a verb, a process, a means of making connections across time, discipline, community, and place. A summary of each of the articles in this special issue is provided, preceding a call for further discussion about the role of case studies and the nature of the middle in STS.

R. K. Merton - Life time of influence

In this article, “Life time of influence” refers to Robert K. Merton's impact broadly, and emblematically, to his influence upon my work. The article discusses 1) the scope and influence of Merton's ideas about social structure and explanations of social processes; 2) his vast scholarship establishing the study of science as a social institution, with implications for theory and research; and 3) his fostering of the social study of science through immense published work, and through impact upon an inter-generational network of scholars.

TECHNOLOGICAL CULTURE AND CONTEMPLATIVE ECOLOGY IN THOMAS MERTON'S CONJECTURES OF A GUILTY BYSTANDER

AbstractHaving introduced the writing of Thomas Merton, this paper pulls together strains of thought scattered throughout Thomas Merton's Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (1965) that shed light on Merton's increasing concern with the destructive effects of modern technology on humans and the earth. The paper explores Merton's understanding of relationships between a myth of progress, technological advance, the idea of 'worldliness' and the 'technological mind'. It moves on to examine the importance of experiences of nature in inspiring Merton's writing, and in underpinning his meditations on alternatives to current understandings of technological progress, before concluding by considering Merton's ideas about hope for humanity.

A dynamical model describing stock market price distributions

High-frequency data in finance have led to a deeper understanding on probability distributions of market prices. Several facts seem to be well established by empirical evidence. Specifically, probability distributions have the following properties: (i) They are not Gaussian and their center is well adjusted by Lévy distributions. (ii) They are long-tailed but have finite moments of any order. (iii) They are self-similar on many time scales. Finally, (iv) at small time scales, price volatility follows a non-diffusive behavior. We extend Merton's ideas on speculative price formation and present a dynamical model resulting in a characteristic function that explains in a natural way all of the above features. The knowledge of such a distribution opens a new and useful way of quantifying financial risk. The results of the model agree – with high degree of accuracy – with empirical data taken from historical records of the Standard & Poor's 500 cash index.

The written and the repressed in Gouldner's industrial sociology

In many ways Alvin Gouldner's industrial sociology prefigures his later work. His studies of the General Gypsum Company combine what later become two separate branches of his discourses on social theory: the exploration of the liberative potential of structural functionalism and the appropriation of the critical moments of Marxism. In Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy, he explores Merton's ideas of functional equivalence, to suggest alternative forms of factory administration, and of latent function, to unveil the domination behind bureaucratic rules. In WiMcat Strike, he turns Parsons's conditions of stable interaction into their opposite: the conditions for disequilibrium. In both books he draws on Marxian ideas of systemic contradiction and struggle as the motor of change, to explain the emergence of new patterns of industrial bureaucracy and to illuminate purposeful collective action. His subsequent books The Coming Crisis of Western Sociology and For Sociology, on one hand, and The Dialectic of Technology and Ideology and The Two Marxisms, on the other can be viewed as reflections on what was tacit and repressed in his analysis of the General Gypsum Company. Even The Future of Intellectuals and the Rise of the New Class has roots in Gouldner's construction of the ideal type "representative bureaucracy" based on expertise and in his treatment of bureaucratic succession in terms of the ideologies of locals and cosmopolitans. Nor is this continuity between his early industrial studies and his later critiques of Academic Sociology and Marxism surprising. For Gouldner was not interested in locating the General Gypsum Company historically, or as a specific part of a specific totality. To the contrary, like other major organization theorists of the period (e.g., Lipset, Selznick, and Blau), he was more concerned with stripping away the particular to reveal the general. General Gypsum Company was a laboratory for testing and developinggeneral theories applicable to diverse contexts, rather than a specific sociology of industry. And yet Gouldner's analysis remains particularly relevant to recent Marxist studies of the labor process. His critique of the "metaphysical pathos" behind

The Scientific Ethos : A deviant viewpoint

The study of science and scientists has attracted sociologists, to any significant extent, only in the last quarter of a century. The earliest papers of any importance in the field are probably those of Robert Merton, written in the late 1930's and early 1940's; Merton's ideas have been extremely influential with all subsequent contributors and it is probably no exaggeration to state that the literature of the subject has been overwhelmingly concerned with the development and extension of Merton's original insights. Certainly in America the work of Barber, Storer, Marcson, Hagstrom, Kornhauser and Shils would seem to justify this contention. In Britain, the sociology of science is not studied as much, but the work of Cotgrove, although by no means ‘following’ Merton, freely acknowledges his influence.