Doctoral Dissertation Research: The Emergence of Disciplinary Networks

标题：学科网络的出现这个项目利用法国神经学的出现来调查社会网络是如何围绕新兴的研究领域形成的，最终将它们从想法转变为制度。是什么导致医学研究人员之间密集的关系社区与一套新颖的想法保持一致，这种耦合过程在关系类型之间有何不同？法国神经学的案例是回答这些问题的理想案例，因为其从业者之间的关系结构很好地代表了19世纪法国其他新兴学科和更普遍的新兴领域。该项目旨在重建1840年至1900年间法国医学科学家之间的学徒关系、同事关系、合作关系和交流网络，并确定那些日后成为神经学家的人之间产生关系结构的机制。数据是从位于法国巴黎的档案中收集的，为了解决研究问题，使用了统计网络和文本分析。这个项目旨在解释为什么研究人员集体倾向于将特定的突破性思想制度化。目前大多数关于科学社会网络的工作只研究了共同发表或共同引用的网络，这使得人们无法解释学科的出现。本研究的学科网络理论框架对科学社会学的发展起到了关键性的推动作用。同时，提出了社会网络分析的两个核心领域。焦点是网络的关键组织者，本研究阐明了新兴焦点影响社会网络的过程。此外，尽管科学网络科学中的许多研究调查了科学界的结构，但它忽略了研究人员的思想和其他属性，以及通常存在于他们之间的众多关系如何凝聚成一门新学科的基础。从关系数据中检测社会群体的能力是网络科学家正在开发的最活跃的领域之一，但目前还没有模型能够准确地捕捉到网络中个人的特征如何产生社区结构。这项研究将揭示产生社区结构的机制。我的项目结果也将阐明在不同的社会网络之间产生关系的机制。

Title: The Emergence of Disciplinary NetworksThis project uses the emergence of neurology in France to investigate how social networks form around emerging areas of inquiries, ultimately transitioning them from idea to institution. What leads to the alignment of a dense community of relationships among medical researchers with a novel set of ideas, and how might this coupling process differ among relationship types? The case of French neurology is an ideal one with which to answer these questions because the structure of relationships among its practitioners well represents that of other nascent disciplines in 19th century France and emerging fields more generally. The project aims to reconstruct apprenticeship, colleagueship, co-authorship, and communication networks among French medical scientists between 1840 and 1900 and to identify the mechanisms that generated the structure of relationships among those individuals who would become neurologists. Data are collected from archives located in Paris, France, and statistical network and text analyses are used in order to address the research questions.This project aims to explain why researchers collectively orient themselves toward institutionalizing particular groundbreaking ideas. Most current work on social networks in science only examines co-publication or co-citation networks, which leaves one unable to explain disciplinary emergence. The disciplinary network theoretical framework of this research advances sociology of science in a key way.At the same time, it advances two central areas in social network analysis. Foci serve as critical organizers of networks, and this research illuminates the process through which emerging foci come to affect social networks. Further, while much research innetwork science of science investigates the structure of scientific communities, it neglects how ideas, and other attributes of researchers, as well as the multitude of relationships that usually exist between them cohere into the foundations of a new discipline.The ability to detect social groups from relationship data constitutes one of the most active areas being developed by network scientists, but no models exist that accurately capture how traits of individuals within networks generate community structure. This research will uncover the mechanisms that produce community structure. The results of my projectwill also shed light on the mechanisms that generate relationships among distinct social networks.