Society and knowledge : contemporary perspectives in the sociology of knowledge

The sociology of knowledge is a critical, evolving field in the analysis of cultural products. Basic to the social sciences and humanities alike, the field is currently undergoing a renaissance. The sixteen original contributions to this volume by a group of social scientists, philosophers, and historians drawn from many nations and vantage points of science represent novel theoretical and empirical efforts to transform the sociology of knowledge, its established boundaries, issues, and solutions. The essays discuss the dis-torting effect of ideology; recent developments toward sociologically in-formed epistemology; the relationship between common sense knowledge and scientific knowledge; the social organization and practice of science; the interrelations between power and knowledge in modern society; and theories of cognition and a general sociology of knowledge. This is the first major compendium in the sociology of knowledge to be issued in more than a decade.