In The Sociology of Knowledge edited by Volker Meja and Nico Stehr, you’ll find a good critical outline of the central questions and methods of the sociology of knowledge.
“…The nature of knowledge has been a central problem of philosophy at least since GraecoRoman times. Plato, for example, in Thextetus adopts a scientific approach to knowledge and cognition. The recognition, however, that knowledge in the broadest senses is contextdependent and somehow constrained by social factors is of more recent origin, as is sociology itself…”
“…The modern sociology of knowledge, by contrast, investigates the interconnections between categories of thought, knowledge claims and social reality – the Seinsverbundenheit (existential connectedness) of thought (Karl Mannheim)…”
“…Knowledge has of course always played a significant role in human life. Human action has to a greater or lesser extent always been steered by knowledge. Power, for example, has never been based exclusively on brute physical force, but almost always also on a knowledge advantage. At present, however, knowledge is assuming a greater significance than ever before. Advanced industrial societies are therefore regarded increasingly as `knowledge societies’. A thoroughgoing scientization of all spheres of human life and action, the transformation both of traditional structures of domination and of the economy, as well as the growing impact and influence of experts are all indications of the rapidly increasing role of knowledge in the organization of modern societies….” (Meja & Stehr)
