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Zeitschrift für Soziologie 2020; 49(4): 249–264 Philipp Korom* Der talentierte Briefeschreiber Robert K. Merton als einflussreicher Gate-Opener: Eine Analyse von 1460 Empfehlungsschreiben The Talented Writer Robert K. Merton as a Powerful Gate-Opener: An Analysis of 1,460 Recommendation Letters https://doi.org/10.1515/zfsoz-2020-0022 ent candidates with the intention of opening “gates” to academic appointments. In his evaluations of former stu- Zusammenfassung: Der Artikel analysiert akademisches dents, RKM used mostly (merit-based) academic and per- Gate-Keeping anhand von 1460 Empfehlungsschreiben sonal criteria while also commenting on analytical skills des einflussreichen amerikanischen Soziologen Robert K. or work ethic. In general, the skilled writer RKM devel- Merton (RKM). Teils auf Ansuchen von Berufungskommis- oped in his letters a compelling prose style of affirmation sionen und zumeist mit augeprägtem Enthusiasmus gab that presented his protégés in the best of all lights, which RKM sein Urteil über das Talent sowie die stellenspe- partly explains his effectiveness as gate-opener. A system- zifische Eignung von 560 Bewerbern/Bewerberinnen ab, atic match of information from recommendations with um in der Regel den Weg für eine akademische Karriere all available CVs yields that the “success rate” of RKM’s zu ebnen. In den stilistisch virtuos verfassten Schreiben efforts varies between 87 percent for promotions to profes- geht RKM vor allem auf akademische Fähigkeiten ein, sorship and 43 percent for external candidates applying kommentiert aber auch Persönlichkeitszüge. Die hohe for full professorships. „Erfolgsquote“ seiner Empfehlungen ist wahrscheinlich auch auf die überzeugende Rhetorik RKMs sowie seine Keywords: Robert K. Merton; Academic Gatekeeper; Aca- gute Kenntnis der Bewerber/Bewerberinnen zurück- demic Career; Letters of Recommendation; American So- zuführen. Systematische Lebenslaufrecherchen zeigen ciology. u. a., dass im Falle von Promotionen zur vollen Professur etwa 87 Prozent und bei externen Kandidaten für aus- geschriebene Professuren etwa 43 Prozent die angestrebte 1 akademische Position erhielten. 1 Introduction Schlüsselwörter: Robert K. Merton; akademisches Gate- Much literature in the social sciences has explored the role Keeping; akademische Karrieren; Empfehlungsschreiben; of social ties in job markets. The research question most amerikanische Soziologie. often posed is: How do people learn about the availabil- ity of jobs and then obtain those jobs? (Granovetter 1995 [1974]). Few studies, however, are concerned with the ac- Abstract: This article sets out to investigate the neglected ademic labor market (Musselin 2010). According to this role of academic gatekeeping in professional recruitment specialized literature, the recruitment process is influ- by studying 1,460 recommendation letters written by the enced by so-called “academic gatekeepers” (Simon & Fyfe eminent Columbia University sociologist Robert K. Merton 1994) – a concept that refers to the “role-set” of scientists (RKM). Partly solicited by academic selection committees (Merton 1957). As Zuckerman and Merton (1972) elabo- and mostly out of enthusiasm for promising scholarship, rate, the status of a scientist involves not a single role, but RKM delivered thorough descriptions of about 560 differ- rather four principal roles: research, teaching, administra- *Korrespondenzautor: Dr. Philipp Korom, Institut für Soziologie, Universität Graz, Universitätsstraße 15/G3, 8010 Graz, Österreich, 1 This study was funded by the project of the Austrian Science Fund E-Mail: [email protected] (FWF) ‘Academic superelites in economics and sociology’ (P 29211). Open Access. © 2020 Korom, published by De Gruyter. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. 250 Philipp Korom, Der talentierte Briefeschreiber Robert K. Merton Figure 1: Trajectories of RKM’s Citations and Recommendations Notes. Considered in this figure are 1,460 recommendations by RKM archived in the Rare Book & Manuscript Library of the Columbia University, New York (boxes 103–117). Citing articles were identified using the Social Science Citation Index (1956-present). The considered articles citing RKM (N=644) were either published in the American Sociological Review (ASR) or the American Journal of Sociology (AJS), which are the flagship journals of American sociology. The different segments in the figure refer to the various career stages of RKM at Columbia University. tive, and gatekeeper. In their role as gatekeepers, scientists hereafter) – one of the most influential sociologists of his “evaluate the promise and limitations of aspirants to new time – knew that only access to “private knowledge” can positions, thus affecting both the mobility of individual provide a window into this world of the (social) sciences scientists and, in the aggregate, the distribution of person- that remains largely obscure (Santoro 2017: 3). Conse- nel throughout the system.” (Zuckerman & Merton 1972: quently, he decided to make not only all his meticulously 316) Moreover, as van den Brink and Benschop (2014: 464) archived correspondences with hundreds of key schol- argue, “gatekeeping encompasses scouting for eligible ars and former students publicly accessible post mortem applicants through formal and informal networking and (Dubois 2014b); his treasures for posterity also contain keeping a constant watch on the academic field.” approximately 1,460 letters of recommendation written The gatekeeping role is the least explored of all four between 1938 and 2002.2 As shown in Figure 1, RKM was an roles for obvious reasons: due to privacy issues, the de- avid writer of such letters that were sent to selection com- liberations of selection committees remain confidential (see for an exception: Lamont 2009), and oftentimes re- strictions are placed on accessing archive materials that 2 This study is solely based on archive material contained in boxes document gatekeeping activities (see for an exception: 103–117 of the “Robert K. Merton Papers, 1928–2003,” archived in the Tsay et al. 2003). Rare Book & Manuscript Library of Columbia University. As some rec- Much suggests that Columbia University sociologist ommendations can be found in other boxes as well, it is likely that Robert K. Merton (1910–2003; I will refer to him as RKM the archive contains overall more than 1,460 letters of recommenda- tions. Philipp Korom, Der talentierte Briefeschreiber Robert K. Merton 251 mittees at very different academic institutions throughout Positive and negative forces around a “gate” facilitate or his professional life. constrain the flow of information to decision-makers (i. e. This article explores all recommendation letters in individuals vested with official authority in organiza- RKM’s collection not only to shed light on the scientist tions that make in/out decisions). “Gatekeepers” allow or RKM, but also to explore the wider phenomenon of aca- prevent information from passing through the “gate” and demic gatekeeping. I theorize gatekeepers in academia shape information into “stories.” While journalists act as and identify knowledge gaps about academic gatekeep- gatekeepers by selecting news on politicians that, once ing. With this theoretical framework in mind, I examine published, can influence their chances of being re-elected the actual content of all recommendations as well as to office, academics use peer reviews to influence editorial RKM’s writing style to arrive at a better understanding of decisions on what is “in” or “out” the marketplace of ideas elite influence in the academic job seeker’s market. The (Coser 1975; Simon & Fyfe 1994). We have some limited empirical analysis focuses not only on the evaluation cri- knowledge on peer review gatekeepers in academic jour- teria applied when judging job candidates, but also on the nals (Crane 1967) and on the peer review assessment of art of rhetorical persuasion RKM brought close to perfec- excellence (Tsay et al. 2003; Lamont 2009). Yet the power tion. The “thick descriptions” (Geertz 1973) presented in of gatekeepers in the academic job market is clearly un- this article illuminate first and foremost how RKM acted der-researched, even if it is well established that letters of as a gatekeeper. His actual influence on selection com- recommendation are essential to the professional evalu- mittees will be harder to gauge due to limitations in the ations of applicants (Caplow & McGee 1961; Lewis 1998). source material and can only be reconstructed with great The power of established scholars to foster the aca- uncertainty. I conclude by discussing the study’s limited demic careers of their colleagues and students is especially generalizability and avenues for further research. a rare bird in the literature. Besides anecdotal evidence, there are few (auto-)biographical accounts that inform how influential members of a discipline “open gates” in the academic job market for their protégés (Fox 2011). 2 Gatekeeping and gate-opening: One account by Parsons‘ student Renée C. Fox describes Towards a better understanding how Parsons assisted his students in the circulation of their ideas by making publication avenues accessible of elite influence in academia or introducing them to influential intellectual networks (Fox 1997). However, this scattered and scarce evidence The term “gatekeeper” was first introduced to the social offers only limited insights into how “master-apprentice sciences by social psychologist

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