Domains, fields and new forms of knowledge production: an interdisciplinary approach based on a socio-anthropology of information

Abstract: The aim of this article is to develop an interdisciplinary approach to knowledge domains through dialogues between domain analysis, the sociology of knowledge and the socio-anthropological approach to information. Among the eleven topics of investigation of the domains formulated by Birgen Hjørland, those whose theoretical and methodological approach more directly contemplates the cultural, social and historical dimensions of knowledge were selected. Based on this selection, it recovers a trajectory of research in which a comprehensive outlook that bridges different areas of knowledge was used in studies of multiples domains, showing the themes, questions and objects that led to the complementary approach between the three theoretical and methodological perspectives. Three thematic strands form the foundation of this analysis: (a) the social and historical conditions of knowledge production; (b) the relative autonomy of the scientific field and its domains; (c) the reflexivity in research practices. From a contextual and empirical point of view, we start from the assumption that, along with the new media and technologies, the scientific field and its domains will increasingly need to open up paths of collaboration between different discursive communities or social fields and their multiple knowledges (scientific, social, historical, popular) in a context of disinformation and scientific denialism. It is also a question of rethinking the role of knowledge domains in the face of the epistemological, social, climatic and health injustices that exist in today’s world.