Academic Gangs

Melissa Raven tweeted this 1995 Thomas Sheff paper. I think a lot of people in academia will recognize at least some of this (as he acknowledges).  Science is done by primates, with all the primate concerns.  The argument seems related to the one David Hull advanced in his book “Science as a process”.  

Being a partial social psychologist (outbreeding female?) I’m intreseted in the group formations.  Not just the negatives, but also the positives that follow.  You get a little bit of a negative sense from the paper (and, sure, there are negative consequences), but there are also positives from group and gang formation. 

 

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