Thomas Kuhn and Paradigms

• "normal science" is socially constructed and exists within a particular framework or view of the world which is known as a paradigm
• paradigms

  existing form of knowledge, one common paradigm that everyone agrees with

  sociology doesn't have one paradigm as theorists can't agree with each other - cannot be a science
• dominates scientific thinking and traps thought and investigation, shapes the way they approach their research and informing assumptions about the world around them - anything outside will be ignored or rejected - over time challenging evidence builds and then there is a scientific revolution which results in a change in the paradigm or paradigm shift
• sociology has never been just one paradigm - it is pre-paradigmatic an therefore pre-scientific, so not particularly scientific, only become scientific if disagreements settled - postmodernists see this as strength rather than weakness, is it desirable to be a science and have just one paradigm
• Kuhn's central idea is the paradigm

  paradigm - shared by members of a given scientific community and defines what their science is, provides a basic framework of assumptions, principles, methods + techniques within which members of that community work; a worldview that tells scientists what nature is like, which aspects of it are worth studying, what methods should be used, what kinds of questions should be asked

  a set of norms as it tells scientists how they ought to think + behave
• scientists accept the paradigm uncritically as a result of socialisation

  scientists' conformity to the paradigm is rewarded with publication of their research and career success

  a science cannot exist without a shared paradigm