The paper starts from the thesis that unhindered international communication is a central characteristic of modern science. Second, the paper argues that scientific progress cannot be defined unequivocally in the social sciences. Four structures inhibit free international communication (linguistic barriers, the size of a national sociological community, the quality of scientific research, and the influence of specific sociologists and their schools). Third, three kinds of data are used to investigate the relevance of these factors: The participation in international congresses, the quotation patterns in major sociological journals and the reasons for the exceptional success of three sociologists, from the USA, France and Germany, respectively. Finally, a short hint toward the development of sociology outside the Western world is given. The paper concludes with some reflections on strategies to change the one-sided, asymmetrical communication in sociology toward a more balanced pattern.

中文翻译：

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一个全球科学共同体？社会学国际传播模式中的普遍主义与国家狭隘主义*

本文从无阻碍的国际交流是现代科学的一个核心特征这一论点开始。其次，本文认为在社会科学中不能明确定义科学进步。四种结构阻碍了自由的国际交流（语言障碍、国家社会学社区的规模、科学研究的质量以及特定社会学家及其学校的影响）。第三，使用三种数据来研究这些因素的相关性：参加国际会议的情况、主要社会学期刊的引用模式以及分别来自美国、法国和德国的三位社会学家取得非凡成功的原因。最后，对西方世界以外的社会学的发展给出了一个简短的提示。