Sociologists of knowledge have attempted to explain the beliefs of epistemic agents in terms of their social location within a hierarchy of power relationships. This paper proposes an alternative way of conceiving the social location of epistemic agents. Drawing on the Durkheimian notions of social integration and social density, it will define an agent's social location in terms of the density of their relations within social networks. For the sociology of scientific knowledge in particular, it will focus on social relations within professional networks of scientists. Then the paper will address the applicability of the network concept of social location to the sociology of knowledge generally.
Sociology of knowledge; Sociology of science; Feminist epistemology; Durkheim