Overview

A striking characteristic of modern knowledge society is the rapid spread of certain ideas and concepts back and forth from everyday to scientific discourses, and across many different contexts of meaning. This book opens up a new road to the study of these 'dynamics of knowledge'. Sociologists of knowledge and recently evolutionary theorists have offered explanations that either attribute social attention to particular ideas or shifts of meaning to the predominance of certain groups. Maasen and Weingart, however, offer a radical new explanation that explores knowledge dynamics by reference to the interaction between metaphors and discourses. The study focuses on three major case studies: the spread of Darwin's phrase 'struggle for existence' in the popularizing literature in turn of the century Germany the reception of Thomas Kuhn's Structure of Scientific Revolution and its identification with the term 'paradigm' in the sciences and humanities the diffusion of the concept of 'chaos' from scientific to everyday discourses In its innovative theoretical approach and rich empirical analysis this book will be of vital interest to social and cognitive scientists alike

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9780415208024

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This is a substantial, interesting, and wel-written analysis of the role of metaphors within various disciplines. The authors have produced a worthy analysis of what they call knowledge dynamics. ...Many people will find parts of this book of interest, and researchers in the sociology/philosophy of sciences and those interested in applications of chaos/complexity and biological models of social analysis will be especially assisted by the detailed materials. -Contemporary Sociology

This is a substantial, interesting, and wel-written analysis of the role of metaphors within various disciplines. The authors have produced a worthy analysis of what they call knowledge dynamics. ...Many people will find parts of this book of interest, and researchers in the sociology/philosophy of sciences and those interested in applications of chaos/complexity and biological models of social analysis will be especially assisted by the detailed materials. -Contemporary Sociology

This is a substantial, interesting, and wel-written analysis of the role of metaphors within various disciplines. The authors have produced a worthy analysis of what they call knowledge dynamics. ...Many people will find parts of this book of interest, and researchers in the sociology/philosophy of sciences and those interested in applications of chaos/complexity and biological models of social analysis will be especially assisted by the detailed materials. <br>-Contemporary Sociology <br>

Author Information

Maasen, Sabine; Weingart, Peter

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