Core Concepts and Common Ground: The Relational Basis of Our Discipline

The core of sociology is the key thing that we share as sociologists — the basic way of viewing social life that makes us distinctive as a discipline. This core is the content that we have to communicate to a larger public. I argue that the disciplinary form that best develops a core is a structure in which there are a high density of positive network ties within the discipline, relatively weak subdivisions within the discipline, and a lower density of ties linking us to outside institutions. I use structural and social psychological theory to talk about the interactional dynamics that weaken this optimal disciplinary structure. The hope is that these theoretical insights will help us deal productively with some of the major social changes that are occurring within our field. I end with eight theoretically derived propositions to guide our behavior toward these ends.