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The SSK breaks down into two sub-schools or programmes/programs (either spelling is used). The weak program merely considers sociological factors to be important in scientific practice. The strong program considers sociological factors to be the decisive ones.
The weak program is more of a description of an approach than an organised movement. Subscribers are historians and philosophers of science who see sociological factors as important in science, but who do not see them as being the pre-eminent factor in whether a theory is accepted as being true or not. Karl Popper, Imre Lakatos, and (in some moods) Thomas Kuhn might be said to adhere to it.
The strong program is particularly associated with the work of two groups: the Edinburgh School ( David Bloor and his colleagues of the Science Studies Unit at the University of EdinburghThe University of Edinburgh was founded in 1583 in a period of rapid development in Edinburgh, Scotland. It is one of the ancient universities of Scotland, has more students than any other university in Scotland and is amongst the largest in the United Ki); and the Bath School ( Harry CollinsHarry Collins in 2004 is a professor at the School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University. While at the University of Bath Professor Collins developed the Bath School approach to the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge. His best known book is The Golem: W and others of the Science Studies Unit at the University of BathThe University of Bath established in 1966 near Bath, England, has grown into one of the United Kingdom's leading universities, ranking consistently as one of the top 10 universities in major UK league tables. It is one of the members of the 1994 Group of). Bruno Latour is also considered by many to be part of this movement.
Sociology of scientific knowledge became controversial in the 1990sCenturies: 19th century 20th century 21st century Decades: 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 2020s 2030s 2040s Years: Events and trends Computers, technology Explosive growth of the Internet; decrease in the cost of computers and other techn after the publication of a hoax paper by Alan SokalAlan David Sokal (born 1955) is a physicist at New York University. He is best known to the general public for the Sokal Affair of 1996, on which he followed up by co-authoring Fashionable Nonsense (also known as Intellectual Impostures with Jean Bricmont and Jean BricmontJean Bricmont is a Belgian theoretical physicist and a professor at the Catholic University of Louvain. He works on renormalization group and nonlinear differential equations. He is known to a non-academic audience for co-authoring Fashionable Nonsense wi in the journal Social Text, under the title Transgressing the Boundaries: Toward a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity. The ensuing debate (the Sokal affair) led to SSK thinkers being accused of relativism.
See also: Sociology of knowledge, Science and technology studies
Philosophy of science History of science