The Reinvention of Grand Theories of the Scientic/Scholarly Process

Abstract

In the mid-twentieth century, the reigning understanding of the scientific process, logical positivism, disintegrated. Subsequently, there has been fragmentation in science studies (Hess 1997; Yearley 2005; Sismondo 2008; Restivo and Croissant 2008). Many have emphasized the postmodern theme that general theories or grand narratives are impossible. Despite a profusion of diversity, some sociologists and sociologically-minded philosophers of science continue to produce general theories of the scientific/scholarly process. Through textual analysis and interviews, we studied ten such theories empirically on eleven issues, assessing their compatibility or lack thereof with each other, aiming to determine whether a new general theory is emerging. © 2011 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.