Question

The passage given below is followed by four summaries. Choose the option that best captures the author’s position.
Production and legitimation of scientific knowledge can be approached from a number of perspectives. To study knowledge production from the sociology of professions perspective would mean a focus on the institutionalization of a body of knowledge. The professions-approach informed earlier research on managerial occupation, business schools and management knowledge. It however tends to reify institutional power structures in its understanding of the links between knowledge and authority. Knowledge production is restricted in the perspective to the selected members of the professional community, most notably to the university faculties and professional colleges. Power is understood as a negative mechanism, which prevents the non-professional actors from offering their ideas and information as legitimate knowledge.

• A. Professions-approach aims at the institutionalization of knowledge but restricts knowledge production as a function of a select few.
• B. The study of knowledge production can be done through many perspectives
• C. Professions-approach focuses on the creation of institutions of higher education and disciplines to promote knowledge production
• D. The professions-approach has been one of the most relied upon perspective in the study of management knowledge production.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

This question, though it looks a little challenging, is in fact quite simple. You must read the passage twice to get some basic understanding of it. The first sentence says that scientific knowledge can be approached from a number of perspectives. Studying something from the perspective of a particular profession would lead to institutionalization of that knowledge. Though it helps, it restricts knowledge production to a domain of few, which results in power centered in the hands of few, preventing the non-professional actors from offering their ideas. The above simplification helps us arrive at option 1 as the right choice. Options 3 and 4 are against the author’s stand in the passage. Option 2 is not the core message, but an inference that can be derived from the above passage.