DETERMINANTS OF DISCIPLINARY DISCONTENT

Data from the 1984 Carnegie survey of faculty at U.S. universities sho w substantial disciplinary variation in perceptions that one's field i s stagnant. We examine the extent to which variation in pessimism abou t the intellectual state of one's field can be explained by theories t hat attribute it to field-level variation in anomie and consensus. We also examine the effects of individual-level characteristics on discip linary discontent using a multilevel analysis. We find that both anomi e and consensus exert strong effects on the average levels of scholarl y pessimism within fields. In addition, there is an interaction effect involving the level of consensus in a field and whether the field is primarily pure or applied. The multilevel analysis shows that the effe cts of field-level variables are not attributable to compositional dif ferences in individual characteristics and that, as a group, the field -level variables are stronger determinants of scholarly pessimism than individual characteristics.