CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2020
| Author | Bineth, Oliver |
|---|---|
| Title | Towards the Sociology of Curiosity: Theoretical and Empirical Consideration of the Epistemic Drive Notion |
| Summary | Curiosity has long been a taken for granted concept in the popular imagination and a marginalized topic in academic discourse, especially in the field of sociology. However, studies in history and philosophy bring key reasons for developing an explicitly sociological treatment of the concept. This thesis provides an argument for the social production of curiosity. On the strength of its motivating characteristic, the essay reformulates curiosity as an epistemic drive in society which organizes the social production of knowledge under given socio-historical and local-cultural circumstances. In the first part of the thesis, historical, philosophical, and sociological literature is reviewed to address common preconceptions of curiosity and give a context for the argument. Then a theoretical apparatus is developed considering the emergence, development, and impact of epistemic drives which serves as a foundation for a new perspective on what motivates the social production of knowledge. The second part of the thesis focuses on the empirical applicability of the epistemic drive notion of curiosity. As a case study, the problem of economic incentives in scientific research is considered. After presenting data on global climate change investments and U.S. federal research funding, the proposition is formed that economic incentives put research projects with short-term profitability at a significant advantage in acquiring funding compared to projects with little to none immediate economic return. A tendency which systematically mobilizes production-oriented epistemic drives and immobilizes risk-oriented ones. The idea of pure curiosity driven research is addressed by reporting on a recent science-industry conference at an Austrian basic research institution. It is concluded that even basic research is influenced by economic incentives that produce production-oriented epistemic drives. Through theoretical and empirical developments, the thesis suggests the usefulness of the epistemic drive notion in understanding the motivation and organization of knowledge production in society. |
| Supervisor | Fabiani, Jean-Louis; Kowalski, Alexandra |
| Department | Sociology MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2020/bineth_oliver.pdf |
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