The international circulation of social science knowledge

Abstract

The paper intends to develop a framework for the understanding of theoretical and epistemological aspects of international circulation of social science knowledge in the specific form of social science texts. It problematizes a series of intrinsic parameters that influence the acceptance or rejection of a given circulating text beyond its historical, political, economic and cultural contexts of production. Obviously, geo-political, economic, political and ideological constellations, institutional structures, educational systems and book markets, differentiated and stratified audiences, funding opportunities and networks, the classic domains of history and sociology of science and of STS, affect knowledge-production and circulation. Such arguments, however, suggest that the concerned approaches are not accepted or rejected because of their content but because of their assumed political instrumentalization, or because of the material support that enabled their imposition and domination. The intention of this paper, instead, is to provide a programmatic outline for a serious consideration of text-intrinsic parameters, i.e. of the knowledge-dimension itself and its efficacy, and the specific ways in which they affect circulation of social science texts.

Keywords

• epistemology
• social sciences
• circulation of knowledge
• international
• history of concepts
• social theory