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Article: Three departments in search of a discipline: localism and interdisciplinary interaction in American sociology, 1890-1940.(Defining the Boundaries of Social Inquiry)
- Article from:
- Social Research
- Article date:
- December 22, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 New School for Social Research. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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MORE than a decade ago, Clifford Geertz gave strong voice to two themes which have since acquired increasing importance throughout the social sciences and the humanities. On the one hand, he urged attention to the phenomenon of "local knowledge," proposing that "the shapes of knowledge are always ineluctably local, indivisible from their instruments and encasements." On the other hand, he accented the reality and significance of "genres" of intellectual work that are "blurred," in the sense that they cut across "a borders-and-territories map" of separate academic disciplines (1983, pp. 4-8).
The period since Geertz's observations has witnessed a marked heightening ...