The word and the world : explorations in the form of sociological analysis /

Mulkay (University of York) has written an engaging and novel contribution to the sociology of science through the study of discourse analysis. He examines the social construction of scientific fact through the microsociological analysis of case studies of scientific exchanges and communications. Scientific ``facts'' are not the hard, immutable realities so often assumed; they are as much the end product of complex social interactions in the scientific community, as Mulkay's deconstruction of them so amply demonstrates. Some readers will find this a difficult book, for Mulkay forces on readers new ways of seeing. The author says, ``The text is not presented as a linear, univocal argument, but as a series of overlapping, multi-levelled interpretive sequences representing, and themselves open to, multiple readings.'' This is a scholarly work, thoroughly documented, with a three-page author and subject index. Chiefly for graduate libraries serving programs in microsociology, the sociology of science, sociolinguistics, and related areas.-I.L. Allen, University of Connecticut