Abstract:

Containing 13 original empirical studies of the day-to-day knowledge-making activities of social scientists and specialists in related areas, this volume represents the first comprehensive effort to bring the “turn to practice” to bear on the understanding of social knowledge. Inspired by advances in the interdisciplinary field of science studies, where over the past quarter century researchers have plumbed the inner workings of the physical and biological sciences using a variety of social and historical lenses, contributors to the volume tackle a range of previously unexplored questions about the situated practices involved in the production, assessment, and use of diverse forms of social knowledge. In so doing, authors address topics including the changing practices of historical research, anthropological data collection, and library usage; the knowledge evaluation practices of peer review panels, institutional review boards, and multi-disciplinary research consortia; and processes of knowledge production and application in private and public arenas beyond the academy, such as global banks, survey research organizations, and policy venues in national security and economic regulation. Assembling a stellar cast of senior and junior researchers from sociology, history, anthropology, and science studies, the editors bring into dialogue scholars at work on these different historical and contemporary subjects and, on this basis, propose a new research agenda for the study of the production and evaluation of social knowledge in the social sciences, the humanities, and a broad range of non-academic settings.

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