300451 Introduction to Social Studies of Science (MA: Politische Soziologie) (S) (WiSe 2024/2025)

The sociology of science and the social studies of science is a lively field that focuses on the institutional, organisational and cultural conditions of knowledge production of science. It is influenced by various traditions of thought as well as different disciplines including ethnology, history, philosophy and economics of science.
The aim of this introductory seminar is to provide an overview about the most paradigmatic questions and directions of research in that field as well as the most important theoretical approaches. We will read, discuss and compare some seminal works with you and will heavily rely on examples to make the abstract theoretical considerations more understandable. At the end of the seminar, you should have an overview about the approaches and a theoretical ‘map’ about how they relate to each other.