The scientization of the World

Scientization is a central concept in organizational and social theory and, in the last decade, has been framed by neo-institutional theory and championed mostly by scholars such as Gili S. Drori, John W. Meyer, Francisco O. Ramirez and Evan Schofer. Emphasizing the cognitive dimension of institutions as “belief systems”, “common scripts” and “cultural frames” and their ability to create and structure reality, perspectives framed by sociological neo-institutionalism suggest that scientization is one of the most important institutions in contemporary societies. Following this line of argument, scientization is a constitutive global cultural-cognitive pattern of late modernity and becomes apparent in the diffusion of science-like legitimizing scripts and rationalizing logic to all spheres of life at least since the end of WW II: it permeates different political systems, the life courses of individuals from early childhood through professional and social adulthood, and affects the development and maintenance of military systems as well as child rearing, cooking and partner choice. The Tübingen project shares the basic assumptions of neo-institutionalism concerning the scientization thesis, yet also seeks to develop it further. While neo-institutionalist scholars have shown that scientization after 1945 has superseded an older, intrinsically motivated, more limited, and nationalist form of scientification, the question of what scientization actually implies and how it exactly differs from the “scientification of social” has not yet been clarified.