VISIBLE COLLEGES - THE SOCIAL AND CONCEPTUAL STRUCTURE OF SOCIOLOGY SPECIALTIES

We examine the structure of sociology using data on overlapping memberships in the discipline's "visible colleges," the specialty sections of the American Sociological Association. Hypotheses about the structure of joint specialization in sociology are derived from four general theories of professional and scientific specialization: ideational theory, political-economic theory, professional power theory, and intellectual circle/network theory. We analyze joint specialty section memberships using multidimensional scaling techniques and produce a spatial model of the discipline's specialty structure. The tightest clusters of specialties arise from the confluence of ideational aspects (like shared concepts or subject matter), professional power interests, and social characteristics of members. Although a major division in the discipline is embedded in the political-economic environment of sociology, three cross-cutting dimensions are required to adequately represent the discipline's structure. The main dimensions of differentiation are: (1) "conflict" versus "applied" perspectives, (2) micro versus macro units of analysis, and (3) ascriptive characteristics of members. These three dimensions support the validity of political-economic, ideational, and professional power theories, respectively.