Epistemic projects

what are they and what is their value for sociology?

Abstract

This essay puts forward the sociological concept of epistemic projects for helping scholars grasp how ontological claims start to circulate and order human life in the digital age. The theory of epistemic projects gives primacy to semiosis and to an understanding of ideas as signs. The essay begins with a declaration of what epistemic projects entail and the use of this concept in the past. I then proceed to discuss how the concept relates to and departs from the sibling concepts of epistemic community, epistemic governance, and epistemic work. In the last chapter I position the epistemic project in view of sociological constructs of systems, assemblages, and dispositifs. I conclude by arguing that the main contribution of the epistemic projects theory is the potency of focusing on idea world setups and leaving aside questions of truth value and actors’ positions.