Emotions and Interaction in the Sociology of Interdisciplinarity

In this lecture, Lamont will discuss various aspects of her recent research on interdisciplinarity, which includes her book on peer review, How Professors Think, (Harvard University Press, 2009) and Social Knowledge in the Making (with Charles Camic and Neil Gross, University of Chicago Press,  August 2011). The latter proposes an agenda for the analysis of the production, evaluation, and application of social knowledge. She will also discuss her ongoing work on the conditions that lead to successful interdisciplinarity, as defined by members of interdisciplinary teams. In her collaborative work with Veronica Boix-Mansilla and Kyoko Sato, she proposes the theoretical construct of “shared socio-emotional-cognitive [SSEC] platforms” and puts it to work to analyze nine research programs supported by three institutions: the MacArthur network, the Santa Fe Institute, and the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. This study analyzes the dynamics between the intellectual, emotional, interactional, and institutional aspects of knowledge production. We contrast SSEC platforms with the notion of “trading zones”, proposed by Peter Galison.

Introduction: Dagmar Simon (WZB)

Moderator: Michael Hutter (WZB)