Boundaries under Construction

Abstract

The success of the new discipline was predicated on canny strategic choices and effective boundary work. Segerstedt and his allies employed an effective rhetorical model, in which contemporary international sociology was described as divided into two distinct traditions — one American and empirical, the other Continental and speculative — with the former proposed as the appropriate choice for Swedish sociologists. Dissenting opinions were effectively suppressed. This struggle served to determine the boundaries between sociology and other, closely related disciplines, thereby creating an exclusive domain. By the 1960s, Swedish sociology was a well-established discipline enjoying wide acceptance and respect. It was distinctly defined and uniform, albeit narrow in scope.