The Global Knowledge Lab and Observatory (or the Global Lab) is a group of sociologists and other social scientists interested in studying science, knowledge, and innovation on a global scale. By "global," the lab studies science and knowledge transnationally and internationally. It also means studying the social organization, generation, and diffusion of science and knowledge within or between entire academic fields or communities. The Global Lab applies computational social science and traditional quantitative social science techniques to research, as well as qualitative methods and approaches. Lab members collaborate on research, engage in mentorship and training, and disseminate the latest work in the field. As an observatory, the Global Lab aims to curate and collect large-scale data to understand knowledge and science through a global lens. Charles Gomez leads the Global Lab in the School of Sociology.
From markets to hierarchies, from organizations to occupations, from networks to institutions, collectivities of all kinds emerge, grow, and disintegrate as if they are merely assemblages of individual components, but persist, mutate, and impact as if they are sui generis and take on a life of their own. "Social organization is like some impacted, mineralized goo, some amazing swirl of local nuclei..." (White 2008). "[E]verything that takes place in it is connected with everything else and so is an outcome of the whole" (Cooley 1983[1909]). "As they crystallize, they attain their own existence and their own laws, and may even confront or oppose spontaneous interaction itself" (Simmel 1950[1908]). This sustained interest in supra-individual actors is as old as the discipline itself and exemplified by contemporary work in the areas of organizations, occupations and work, economic sociology, social movements, and network analysis.
The Social Organization Seminar builds on Arizona's traditional strength in these subfields to provide faculty and graduate students opportunities for training, feedback, and collaboration on topics related to organizations, occupations, institutions, movements, and networks. Specifically, participants of our monthly meetings will get feedback on papers they are preparing for publication, discuss most recent developments in the field, or meet invited speakers.
Our past events include:
- Paper Discussion - Tim Hallett, Orla Stapleton, and Michael Sauder. 2019. “Public Ideas: Their Varieties and Careers.”
- Paper Discussion - Siwei Cheng and Barum Park. 2020. “Flows and Boundaries: A Network Approach to Studying Occupational Mobility in the Labor Market.”
- Guest Speaker - Chris Bail. “How Status Seeking and Social Learning Shape Political Polarization on Social Media: Evidence from a Mixed-Method Field Experiment on Twitter.”
- Paper Discussion - Andreas Wimmer. 2021. “Domains of Diffusion: How Culture and Institutions Travel around the World and with What Consequences.”
- Paper Discussion - Anna Keuchenius, Petter Törnberg, and Justus Uitermark. 2021. “Adoption and Adaptation: A Computational Case Study of the Spread of Granovetter’s Weak Ties Hypothesis.”
- Paper Discussion - Yonghoon G. Lee and Martin Gargiulo. 2021. “Escaping the Survival Trap: Network Transition among Early-Career Freelance Songwriters.”
- Paper Discussion - Raphael H. Heiberger, Sebastian Munoz-Najar Galvez, and Daniel A. McFarland. 2021. “Facets of Specialization and Its Relation to Career Success: An Analysis of U.S. Sociology, 1980 to 2015.” with Sebastian Munoz-Najar Galvez.
- Paper Discussion - Negro, Giacomo, Balázs Kovács, and Glenn R. Carroll. 2022. “What’s Next? Artists’ Music after Grammy Awards.”
- Paper Discussion with Mathijs de Vaan - De Vaan, Mathijs, and Toby Stuart. 2022. “Gender in the Markets for Expertise.”
Organizers: Zhuofan Li (lizhuofan@email.arizona.edu)
Eunsung Yoon (eunsung@email.arizona.edu)
Joseph Galaskiewicz (galaskie@email.arizona.edu)