2026 Theses Doctoral

The Matrix of Criticism: How Critique Propels the Social Science Field

Lee, Seungwon

How does criticism operate in the production of social scientific knowledge? This dissertation argues that critique is not merely a response to erroneous ideas: rather, it is a fundamentally social mechanism that arises from status competition and through which scholars reallocate recognition within the field and generate original ideas. By conceptualizing criticism as a relational process embedded in multilayered networks of interaction, relationships, and meanings, it shows that criticism both emerges from and reconfigures these networks. In this sense, critique propels the social science field. Methodologically, I construct a novel network dataset of criticism using critical comment-reply exchanges published in leading peer-reviewed social science journals.

The three empirical chapters examine distinct dimensions of this relational process: how criticism networks emerge, how critical interactions shape status mobility, and how critique facilitates innovation. Together, these analyses demonstrate that critical exchanges are integral to the organization and development of social science, operating at multiple stages of the structural dynamics. The dissertation develops a sociological account of criticism as a relational, culturally mediated, and consequential form of social interaction. In doing so, it advances understanding of how critical practices drive intellectual fields and, more broadly, how criticizing interactions both reflect and transform social life beyond academia.