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Topic · Sociology and Political Science

Legal and Social Philosophy

Legal and Social Philosophy is a research topic within Sociology and Political Science. Science Explorer counts 4.3k research works in it since 1950. 11.2% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers explores the influence of positivism on social change, with a focus on the 19th century. It delves into the works of Auguste Comte, utopian socialism, scientific philosophy, and its impact on political theory, historical analysis, cultural history, and colonialism.

  • Positivism
  • Social Change
  • Auguste Comte
  • Utopian Socialism
  • Scientific Philosophy
  • Historical Analysis
  • Political Theory
  • Cultural History
  • Colonialism
  • Sociological Thought
Research works
4.3k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
483
per year above
Top-10% rate
11.2%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-4%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
France
63% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Legal and Social Philosophy

Which countries lead Legal and Social Philosophy research?

By volume, France and the United States publish the most (435 and 68 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 France 435 works
  2. 2 United States 68 works
  3. 3 ?? 49 works
  4. 4 United Kingdom 45 works
  5. 5 Canada 21 works
  6. 6 Germany 20 works
  7. 7 Belgium 19 works
  8. 8 Italy 13 works
  9. 9 Türkiye 12 works
  10. 10 Luxembourg 9 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

France: 62.9%United States: 9.9%??: 7.0%United Kingdom: 6.4%6 others listed: 13.7%63%largest
France435 · 62.9%United States68 · 9.9%??49 · 7.0%United Kingdom45 · 6.4%6 others listed95 · 13.7%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Legal and Social Philosophy research?

By volume in 2022-now, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique publishes the most Legal and Social Philosophy research, followed by Université de Lyon and Université Lille Nord de France.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 83 works
  2. 2 Université de LyonFrance 37 works
  3. 3 Université Lille Nord de FranceFrance 22 works
  4. 4 Université Paris-SaclayFrance 20 works
  5. 5 Nantes UniversitéFrance 15 works
  6. 6 Université Paris 1 Panthéon-SorbonneFrance 15 works
  7. 7 Université de LorraineFrance 15 works
  8. 8 Université de Caen NormandieFrance 14 works
  9. 9 Université Paris-Panthéon-AssasFrance 13 works
  10. 10 Université de PoitiersFrance 13 works

Who are the leading researchers in Legal and Social Philosophy?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Legal and Social Philosophy include Pierre Bourdıeu, Andre Keren and D. G. Charlton.

  1. 1 Pierre Bourdıeu France 268k citations
  2. 2 Andre Keren Israel 140k citations
  3. 3 D. G. Charlton Israel 130k citations
  4. 4 Bruno Latour France 129k citations
  5. 5 Peter R. Galle Germany 110k citations
  6. 6 Pierre Legendre Canada 98k citations
  7. 7 Sigmund Freud Brazil 97k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Legal and Social Philosophy?

The most cited paper in Legal and Social Philosophy is "The Political Philosophy of the British Idealists." (Stephen R. L. Clark, Peter Nicholson, 1991), with 222 citations. Next come "La formation du contrat" (142) and "Adam Smith, the Last of the Former Virtue Ethicists" (125).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 The Political Philosophy of the British Idealists. Stephen R. L. Clark, Peter Nicholson · The Philosophical Quarterly Jul 1991 222
2 La formation du contrat Charles-Édouard Bucher · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) Conference paper 18 Mar 2015 142
3 Adam Smith, the Last of the Former Virtue Ethicists DEIRDRE NANSEN McCLOSKEY · History of Political Economy 19 Feb 2008 125
4 HOBHOUSE, BOSANQUET AND THE STATE: PHILOSOPHICAL IDEALISM AND POLITICAL ARGUMENT IN ENGLAND 1880–1918 Stefan Collini · Past & Present 1976 124
5 Perfectionist liberalism and political liberalism* Martha C. Nussbaum · Cambridge University Press eBooks Book chapter 17 Apr 2014 123
All 100 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Legal and Social Philosophy research done?

The largest centres of Legal and Social Philosophy research in 2022-now are Paris (France), Lyon (France), Lille (France) and Nantes (France). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Lille and Lyon.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 ParisFrance 103 works
  2. 2 LyonFrance 29 works
  3. 3 LilleFrance 23 works
  4. 4 NantesFrance 18 works
  5. 5 ToulouseFrance 18 works
  6. 6 RennesFrance 16 works
  7. 7 MarseilleFrance 15 works
  8. 8 NanterreFrance 13 works
  9. 9 PoitiersFrance 13 works
  10. 10 Caen 13 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. LilleFR · 23.4 works52×
  2. LyonFR · 29.4 works42×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Legal and Social Philosophy than the world average.

See Legal and Social Philosophy on the map

Where is the best place to study Legal and Social Philosophy?

Among universities, judged by research, Université de Lyon, Université Paris Nanterre and Aix-Marseille Université score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%5%10%mean 6.38%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Aix-Marseille Univer…Université Paris Nan…Université de LyonUniversité Paris-Sac…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Citation excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged
40%
Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share
10%
Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale
30%
Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%
10%
Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad
10%
Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Université de LyonFrance 52.85.1%84.0×37 +60.4%
2Université Paris NanterreFrance 52.67.7%74.9×10 +23.5%
3Aix-Marseille UniversitéFrance 47.611.0%54.6×12 -43.9%
4Université Paris-SaclayFrance 42.94.9%45.1×20 +33.1%
5Université de Caen NormandieFrance 38.45.8%120.1×14 +207.1%
6Université Paris 1 Panthéon-SorbonneFrance 37.75.5%136.7×15 -14.9%
7Université de LorraineFrance 36.77.8%57.1×15 +5.0%
8Université Lille Nord de FranceFrance 33.44.3%76.8×22 +34.3%
9University of LuxembourgLuxembourg 31.36.2%57.7×9 +26.1%
10Université Paris-Panthéon-AssasFrance 23.05.5%433.3×13 -50.3%

Universities only. The score blends citation excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Legal and Social Philosophy, country by country

Is Legal and Social Philosophy research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 4% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2019.

still counting19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Legal and Social Philosophy as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.0034% in 2024.

still counting0.0025%0.0050%0.0075%Legal and Social Philosophy0.0029% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Legal and Social Philosophy over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

still counting5%10%15%Legal and Social Philosophy9.9% in 2025200020102020

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

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