Women and extra-academic social research in Sweden 1900–1950: A sociology of knowledge approach

Abstract

How should we understand the academization of the social sciences around the turn of the twentieth century with regard to gender? In this article I argue in favour of a contextually broadened sociology of knowledge approach which highlights the importance of women’s extra-academic social research as a parallel and interconnected form of social knowledge to the new and male-dominated academic social sciences. Theoretically, the approach combines three perspectives: field theory, social movements research and historical studies of knowledge circulation. Empirically and methodologically, the study is prosopographically centred around nine female social researchers in Sweden 1900–1950 with an analytical focus on their aggregated career patterns, the gender-coded mechanisms of academic exclusion that were at play and three types of alternative arenas that were available for extra-academic social research during the period. It is concluded that we need to take this form of extra-academic social research into account to better understand the dynamics of the field of social knowledge as a whole, including the development of academic social science.