Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: A major appeal of diffusion studies is that it provides rich evidences of how social structural mechanisms affect the trajectory in which an innovation is communicated and spread within a population. However, this very appeal may have caused sociologists to over-emphasize the effect of social structure upon innovative behavior. Particularly, in the area of sociology of science, question arises as to what extent scientists are subject to the “invisible college” influences. Have we, in our break from the mid-century functionalists’ deferential view of science, under-estimated intellectual freedom and individual innovativeness in scientific research? After all, as an institution established for the purpose of generating new ideas and extending man’s knowledge, science has gathered probably the most creative individuals in our society.
In this project proposal, we seek to find a framework that attends to the effect of both individual and social structural level factors in shaping scientists’ behavior. The case we have chosen is the diffusion of event history analysis in sociology. Using bibliometric data from all ISI-indexed sociological journals between 1950 and 2002, we measure a scientist’s innovative propensity by her niche in the knowledge space of sociology and construct various measures of the network ties. Proportional Hazard Model is used to analyze how individual and social structural level factors jointly affect a sociologist’s propensity to adopt the new statistical technique.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: A major appeal of diffusion studies is that it provides rich evidences of how social structural mechanisms affect the trajectory in which an innovation is communicated and spread within a population. However, this very appeal may have caused sociologists to over-emphasize the effect of social structure upon innovative behavior. Particularly, in the area of sociology of science, question arises as to what extent scientists are subject to the “invisible college” influences. Have we, in our break from the mid-century functionalists’ deferential view of science, under-estimated intellectual freedom and individual innovativeness in scientific research? After all, as an institution established for the purpose of generating new ideas and extending man’s knowledge, science has gathered probably the most creative individuals in our society.
In this project proposal, we seek to find a framework that attends to the effect of both individual and social structural level factors in shaping scientists’ behavior. The case we have chosen is the diffusion of event history analysis in sociology. Using bibliometric data from all ISI-indexed sociological journals between 1950 and 2002, we measure a scientist’s innovative propensity by her niche in the knowledge space of sociology and construct various measures of the network ties. Proportional Hazard Model is used to analyze how individual and social structural level factors jointly affect a sociologist’s propensity to adopt the new statistical technique.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: I propose a two-level model of government policy innovation and demonstrate its plausibility by explaining historical cases of innovation in military doctrine.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The project from which this presentation draws is an in-depth interview study of the formidable barriers that present themselves to STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) higher education innovators. Although our focus in the ongoing project is on the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) in STEM, we propose that what is learned from examining pedagogical innovations in this context is transferable to sociologists (or social scientists more broadly). Innovators inherently face similar obstacles, regardless of discipline: resistance from colleagues, departments, students, and even from within themselves. This paper/presentation highlights extrinsic and intrinsic sources of faculty resistance, inherent risks of classroom innovation, and strategies for coping with these for scholars of teaching and learning and/or classroom innovators in general. We indicate how lessons learned in STEM undergraduate education have relevance for SoTL in sociology.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The Bacille Calmette-Guérin vaccine (BCG) has been among the most widely used vaccines against infectious diseases since its first appearance in the early 1900s. The development of BCG and its adoption into the vaccination schedule was, however, controversial. This paper reviews the history of BCG innovation, including its development in the French laboratory, its spread worldwide, and its connection with public health policy. The research illustrates that vaccine innovation is not necessarily an absolutely knowledge-dependent process. The decision-making in public acceptance of the vaccine relies more on the characteristics of the vaccine and could be shaped by collective actions contributed by a diversity of social actors. The research therefore provides a community-based framework to explain the collective actions that overcame the uncertainty caused by limitations in technology and knowledge.