From Porter to Bourdieu: The Evolving Specialty Structure of English Canadian Sociology, 1966 to 2014

Abstract

How has English Canadian sociology changed from 1966 to 2014? Has it become more intellectually fragmented or cohesive over time? We answer these questions by analyzing cocitation networks extracted from 7,141 sociology articles published in 169 journals. We show how the most central early specialties developed largely in response to John Porter's The Vertical Mosaic. In later decades, the discipline diversified, fragmented, and then reorganized around a new set of specialties knit together by the work of Pierre Bourdieu. The discipline was most intellectually fragmented in periods where multiple specialties were emerging or declining concurrently (i.e., 1975 to 1984 and 1995 to 2004), and was more structurally cohesive from 2005 to 2014 than in any previous period. Comment est-ce que la sociologie canadienne-anglaise a-t-elle changé entre 1966 et 2014? Est-elle devenue plus intellectuellement fragmentée ou cohérente avec le temps? Nous répondons à ces questions en analysant des réseaux de co-citation qui ont été déduits de 7,141 articles publiés par 169 journaux. Nous démontrons les spécialités primordiales se sont développées en réponse de The Vertical Mosaic de John Porter. Durant les décennies suivantes, la discipline s'est diversifiée, fragmentée et puis s'est réorganisée autour d'une nouvelle série de spécialités liées ensemble par le travail de Pierre Bourdieu. La discipline était la plus intellectuellement fragmentée durant les périodes où plusieurs spécialités émergeaient ou déclinaient concurremment (par exemple de 1975 à 1985 et de 1995 à 2004). Par contre, elle était plus cohérente que tous les autres périodes entre 2005 et 2014.

The Institution of Sociological Theory in Canada

“…Although Canadian sociology begins as early as the 1920s (Brym and Fox :17), it was not fully formed until the 1960s (Curtis ; McLaughlin :6; Stokes and McLevey ). Canadian sociology is often discussed as “foreign import, a product of the European Enlightenment, French Revolution, […] and industrial capitalist dislocation” (Curtis :205).…”

“…Canadian sociology is often discussed as “foreign import, a product of the European Enlightenment, French Revolution, […] and industrial capitalist dislocation” (Curtis :205). Sociology in Anglo‐Canada was spearheaded primarily by Porter, Dawson, Hughes, Clark, and Innis, and in Franco‐Canada by Gérvin and Lévesque (McLaughlin :6; Stokes and McLevey ). Separate paths unfolded (Warren ), producing a “wall of silence” or “canyon” between Anglo and Franco Canada (Rocher ).…”

“…An influx of American‐trained professors brought commitments to functionalism, positivism, and the New Left (Brym and Saint‐Pierre :545). John Porter's Vertical Mosaic began to strongly shape the discipline's “explanatory stance” (Stokes and McLevey :177), and by the 1970s, Innis and Marx had become central inspirations (Luxton ). For some observers, Anglo‐Canadian sociology came to focus on uniquely Canadian social developments, and less on the global forces impacting Canadian societies (Brym and Fox ).…”

A Troubling Presence: Indigeneity in English‐Language Canadian Sociology

“…Furthermore, the Canadian Review of Sociology and Anthropology ( CRSA ) has been used to compare level of “positivism” in different national sociologies (Gartrell and Gartrell 1996). We recognize that our approach does not capture the work done by Canadian sociologists on Indigeneity in specialist journals, in policy‐oriented or interdisciplinary journals, or in sociological journals published in Europe, the United States, or the Global South (for a method for this kind of analysis, see Stokes and McLevey 2016). However, in assessing the two core Canadian sociological journals, our objective is to invite a conversation about disciplinary norms and assumptions that have formed over time about Indigeneity in the core of the field.…”

“…This section examines the ways in which Indigenous peoples are represented in the selected articles and comments as well as the sociological concepts used in this material. To classify each of our collected publications based on our reading of titles and abstracts, we used the core sociological fields and subfields identified by Stokes and McLevey (2016) in their CRS article "From Porter to Bourdieu: The Evolving Specialty Structure of English Canadian Sociology, 1966 to 2014." We identified a Figure 2 Sociology Subfields of Indigenous-Focused Articles in the Canadian Review of Sociology (1965-2018) total of 17 concepts across the 86 publications: 10 of these concepts were held in common between both journals, and 7 were specific to one of the two journals.…”