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Unity in Diversity: Sociology in The Netherlands 1
Author(s) -
Vall Mark,
Leeuw Frans L.
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
sociological inquiry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.446
H-Index - 51
eISSN - 1475-682X
pISSN - 0038-0245
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-682x.1987.tb01041.x
Subject(s) - sociology , individualism , sociology of knowledge , diversity (politics) , social science , context (archaeology) , sociological research , epistemology , closure (psychology) , medical sociology , citation , sociology of disaster , anthropology , law , political science , philosophy , medicine , paleontology , nursing , biology , public health
Does accumulation of knowledge occur in the social sciences, and if so, under what conditions? Three research programs in Dutch sociology are evaluated with regard to theory accumulation: figurational sociology at the University of Amsterdam: structural individualistic sociology at the University of Utrecht; and data‐based sociological practice at the University of Leyden. In the first two schools, a wide international orientation is accompanied by the use of a closure mechanism, i. e. a publication and citation network that is restricted to members of the same research program. The result is a high degree of theoretical unity within a context of program diversity. The article concludes with some observations on the future of Dutch sociology, followed by a list of publications in each of the three programs.