Is there a canon in this class?

The article addresses issues of interpretation and selection as they are dealt with in current debates on the nature, the content, and the effects of processes and mechanisms of canonization in sociology. It makes a case for a more empirically grounded and sociologically sensitive approach to these issues, drawing from recent research programmes in digital humanities (e.g. distant reading) and insisting on the benefits of cumulative case histories of individual scholars with their patterns of social relations in different countries and languages. The case of gender inclusion/exclusion is focused upon as both exemplary and symptomatic. Finally, the article introduces to the following five articles, presenting briefly their contents and ratio.