When theories become movements: the controversy in consciousness science from a sociological perspective

This article analyzes the ongoing controversy in consciousness science surrounding Integrated Information Theory (IIT) from a sociological perspective. Drawing on Frickel and Gross’s (2005) framework of Scientific/Intellectual Movements (SIMs), the study examines four key social processes that enabled IIT’s emergence and consolidation as a successful SIM: (i) the role of high-status actors rooted in ties to Nobel laureates, (ii) entrepreneurial resource mobilization through an adversarial collaboration program, (iii) sustained micromobilization within a major conference venue, and (iv) the strategic framing of IIT through mathematical formalism. We extend Frickel and Gross’s (2005) framework in two directions. First, by conceptualizing the collective IIT-Concerned – a group of 124 scholars who publicly labeled IIT as “pseudoscience” – as a scientific countermovement (counter-SIM), adapting a concept from social movement theory to the analysis of scientific conflict. Second, by analyzing how this countermovement engages in boundary-work, invoking shifting social values to justify the exclusion of IIT from legitimate science. The analysis shows that the controversy is best understood not merely as a theoretical disagreement, but as a clash between a movement and a countermovement, each mobilizing distinct social and epistemic resources. Cultivating greater reflexivity about the sociological realities of scientific practice would help participants in the controversy and researchers more broadly, manage its consequences and prevent lasting damage to the field of consciousness science.