"What Makes a Science 'Mature'?: Patterns of Organizational Control in Scientific Production"

Since sociology's titular founding (Comte, 1830-1842), discourse on nature of sociology as a has been a major preoccupation. On one side of longstanding debate are those who openly admire and seek to emulate more mature sciences, especially physics. In this tradition stands Auguste Comte's (1830-1842) effort to create a social physics, although it is Popper's (1959) portrayal of logic of discovery that has had most impact on how scientific sociologists view their enterprise. For in Popper's and other's view (e.g., Nagel, 1961; Merton, 1968; 604-15), science is a self-correcting process of knowledge cumulation in which the data ultimately determine plausibility of general laws. On other side of debate can be