Social Problems in American Sociology, 1963-1999*.

Historical narratives often focus on singular star actors; however, much is lost in this story. One key issue for the history of science, for example, is how such ideas ebb and flow among practitioners, but few empirical studies have evaluated this question. Using sociology as a case, we develop dynamic network models with data on over 45,000 articles to map the structure of ideas. These models allow us to determine whether sociology has grown more fragmented. Our results suggest idea boundaries have shifted considerably since the 1960s in both strength and content. We find empirical evidence of the rise of social problems research both in the global structure of ideas and in a more focused context. Textual analyses, such as this study, provide fruitful new directions for the sociology of science and cultural sociology more broadly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]