Stratification in knowledge production: Author prestige and the influence of an American academic debate

While there have been many studies of knowledge production in the natural sciences, there have been relatively few of the social sciences and almost none of the humanities. In this study I examine stratification in knowledge production in a largely American interdisciplinary humanities debate called bioethics, focusing on the issue of the ethics of human genetic engineering. Using a type of content analysis data from 1604 texts, and controlling for the “quality” of these texts, I find that prestigious authors have more influence on the content of the debate because the participants in the debate must build upon the texts of the prestigious authors to legitimate their own work. This legitimation mechanism creates a path of influence for the prestigious authors independent of the quality or amount of their work. I conclude with a discussion of the features of this particular debate, which may create this form of stratification.