Social sciences internationally: The problem of marginalisation and its consequences for the discipline of sociology

Abstract

Social sciences internationally: The problem of marginalisation and its consequences for the discipline of sociology 1 and multiple manifestations of the hierarchical relationship between scholarly communities, their institutions and their research output.One important reason is that, historically, sociology as a specific scholarly discipline, as opposed to social thinking, which is probably as old as humankind and present all over the globe, emerged and was institutionalised in Europe first -Ibn Khaldun's (1967-68) early attempt to found a 'science of civilisation' had full potential but found few followers.A series of studies in history of the sciences points out how the modern scientific system expanded through colonialism and imperialism, using a centre-periphery-model for science history (Baber 2003, Mignolo 2004, Petitjean/Jami/Moulin 1992, Polanco 1992, Rashed 1992, MacLeod 1982; for specific case studies, see Saldaña 1992, Krishna 1992, Todd 1993).Similarly, sociology in the southern continents as well emerged as a subordinated, dependent sociology.After decolonisation, the structures of scientific dependency more often than not remained intact.Many scholars from southern countries still study and get their Ph.D.s in European metropolises, while the United States as the new centre of the international scientific system has also had considerable impact on the development of sociologies particularly in Africa, Latin America and India, partly because of their encouragement of US-style social sciences as an ideological weapon in times of the Cold War (Gareau 1985, Chekki 1987).Several authors address these current issues in terms of centre-periphery.Hountondji links the present situation of the sciences in the global South to historical subordination.Drawing on dependency and world systems theory, he understands underdevelopment in the South as a consequence of their historical annexation to the world market and transposes this explanatory scheme to the domain of scientific development (Hountondji 1990b: 7. See also: Hountondji 1994: 2).Although this paper will follow his invitation to draw analogies between the functioning of the economic and the academic domains, it appears that this can not account for all problems the centre-periphery-divide represents for the social sciences.Gareau's article 'The multinational version of social science with emphasis upon the discipline of sociology' (Gareau 1985) is one of the few attempts to study the international relations within sociology applying science study methodology.In his own centre-periphery model, Gareau distinguishes three social scientific 'blocs': Western social science in the US and Western Europe, Soviet Marxism-Leninism, and the peripheral social sciences of the South.He bases his assumption that the three blocs communicate in hierarchical relationships on empirical evidence.He thus states the ethnocentric perspective of Western social science and the intellectual dependency and subordination of the South, as well as the unilateral communication in hierarchical relationships.Gareau denominates the different scholarly communities, according to their paradigmatic orientation and national location, as 'sects'.The vocabulary indicates his critical and relativistic attitude towards what he calls 'multinational social science'.Thus, he assumes a purely external determination of the observed intellectual hegemony: US-American social science is not that widely spread and recognized because of its 'intrinsic values', but because of the political, economic and cultural domination of the US.According to Gareau, social scientific power corresponds to and relies on economic and political power, because the social sciences are part of the Adebowale, Sulaiman A., 2001, 'The scholarly journal in the production and dissemination of knowledge on Africa: exploring some issues for the future', Vol. 5, No. 1: 1-16.Adésínà, Jìmí, 2002, 'Sociology and Yoruba studies: epistemic intervention or doing sociology in the 'vernacular''?, Vol. 6, No. 1: 91-114.Akiwowo, Akinsola A., 1980, 'Trend Report: Sociology in Africa Today', Vol. 28, No.