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The historiography of Swedish sociology and the bounding of disciplinary identity
Author(s) -
Larsson Anna,
Wisselgren Per
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of the history of the behavioral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.216
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1520-6696
pISSN - 0022-5061
DOI - 10.1002/jhbs.20166
Subject(s) - discipline , historiography , sociology , identity (music) , context (archaeology) , politics , epistemology , social science , historical sociology , history of science , aesthetics , law , history , political science , philosophy , archaeology
Bounding a scientific discipline is a way of regulating its cognitive direction as well as its relations to neighboring disciplines and extra‐academic authorities. In this process of identity making, disciplinary history often is a crucial element. In this article, focusing on the historiography of Swedish sociology and the reception of Gustaf Steffen, Sweden's first professional sociologist, it is argued that Steffen's marginalized role in the traditional accounts should be understood not only with reference to his supposed theoretical shortcomings, but also in the historical context of the early postwar reestablishment of sociology as an academic discipline and its prevalent need for a new disciplinary identity, strategically adjusted to the contemporary institutional and political settings. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.