Scientific Knowledge, Sociology of

The sociology of scientific knowledge (SSK) is a field of sociology that started to take form in the early 1970s. Sociologists, historians, and philosophers who shared a common interest in studying the social underpinnings of science took as a joint focus the very content of scientific knowledge. Previously, a division of labor had existed between philosophy and sociology. The philosophers' role was to analyze and define the norms of science, discussing and drawing up demarcation criteria between science and nonscience. Sociologists were to study the structure of scientific institutions and to provide explanations when science went wrong. Thus, the only type of knowledge qualifying for sociological attention was knowledge perceived to be somehow faulty. SSK, however, approached all scientific knowledge claims – regardless of whether they were held to be true or false – as material for sociological investigation.