The social sciences have, ever since they were first established as academic disciplines, played a foundational role in most spheres of modern society - in policy-making, education, the media and public debate - and hence also, indirectly, for our self-understanding as social beings. The Social Scientific Gaze examines the discursive formation of academic social science in the historical context of the 'social question', that is, the protracted and wide-ranging discussions on the social problems of modernity that were being debated with increased intensity during the nineteenth century. Empirically, the study focuses on the Loren Foundation, a combined private funding agency and early research institute, which was set up in 1885 to promote the rise of Swedish social science and to investigate the social question. Comprising an heuristic case, the close analysis of the Foundation makes it possible not only to reconstruct its basic ideas and practices, but also to situate its activities in broader historical and sociological context. The Social Scientific Gaze argues that the rise of Swedish social science may be seen not only as an 'answer' to the social 'question', but also as one attempt alongside others - including contemporary social literature, the philantropic reform movement, and the introduction of modern social policy - to conceptualize, mobilize and regulate the social sphere. In this process it is furthermore shown how an ambigious yet distinct 'social scientific gaze' was discursively articulated.

About the Author

Per Wisselgren is Associate Professor of Sociology, with a PhD in History of Science and Ideas, at Umea University in Sweden. Previous books include Social Science in Context: Historical, Sociological and Global Perspectives (co-edited, 2013), Couples in Science and Politics: Intellectual Marriages in Modernity (co-edited in Swedish, 2011), and History of Participatory Media: Politics and Publics, 1750-2000 (co-edited, 2011).

Reviews

'Per Wisselgren has written a remarkable account of an extraordinary series of events in the period of pre-academic reformist social science.' - Serendipity: Journal for the Sociology and History of the Social Sciences

'Abroad, Sweden's welfare state system is as famous as the four letter furniture store. Fewer people are familiar with the socio-historical background of the first. Per Wisselgren's book offers a detailed portrait of the debates on the 19th century social question and the rise of the social sciences which lead to the model welfare system.' - Christian Fleck, University of Graz, Austria

'As a study in the sociology of knowledge, this is an exemplary book. It is deeply theoretical, richly empirical, and engagingly written.' - Annulla Linders, Contemporary Sociology

'Wisselgren does an outstanding job of explaining who the participants were, the role of literature, the details of the decision-making process and finances of the foundation. He reveals the complexity of a series of events that might pass unnoticed, and recaptures the motives and actions of people who were not important social scientists, but who were the enthusiasts for social science that made possible social science as an institutional fact.' - Professor Stephen Turner in the latest issue of Serendipities: Journal for the Sociology and History of the Social Sciences

'Per Wisselgren has written a remarkable account of an extraordinary series of events in the period of pre-academic reformist social science.' - Serendipity: Journal for the Sociology and History of the Social Sciences

'Abroad, Sweden's welfare state system is as famous as the four letter furniture store. Fewer people are familiar with the socio-historical background of the first. Per Wisselgren's book offers a detailed portrait of the debates on the 19th century social question and the rise of the social sciences which lead to the model welfare system.' - Christian Fleck, University of Graz, Austria

'As a study in the sociology of knowledge, this is an exemplary book. It is deeply theoretical, richly empirical, and engagingly written.' - Annulla Linders, Contemporary Sociology

Book Information
ISBN 9781138501942
Author Per Wisselgren
Format Paperback
Page Count 286
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 453g