Having written extensively on creative communities and the institutions
they establish, let me offer a bibliography that might prove helpful.  
The focus here is on the British case, particularly during the
nineteenth century. 

As background, here are several history of science pieces that are
helpful ?

Cannon, Susan Faye. 1978. *Science in Culture: the early Victorian
Period*. New York: Science History Publications. (This is Cannon on the
Cambridge network of science.  Early British mathematical economics grew
out of this network).

Cohen, I. Bernard. 1985. *Revolution in Science.* Belknap Press of the
Harvard University Press, Cambridge.

_____. 1987. ?Scientific Revolutions, Revolutions in Science, and a
Probabilistic Revolution 1800 -- 1930.? in *The Probabilistic
Revolution*, vol 1, ed. by Lorenz Kruger, Lorraine J. Daston, and
Michael Heidelberger. M.I.T. Press, Cambridge. 23?44.

Hacking, Ian. 1987. ?Was there a Probabilistic Revolution 1800 --
1930??, *The Probabilistic Revolution*, ed. by Lorenz Kruger,
Lorraine J. Daston, and Michael Heidelberger, M.I.T. Press, Cambridge.
Vol. 1, 45?58.

Morrell, Jack and Arnold Thackray. 1981. *Gentlemen of Science, Early
Years of the British Association for the Advancement of Science*. Oxford
University Press, Oxford. 

Yeo, Richard. 1981. ?Scientific Method and the Image of Science,
1831--1890? *The Parliament of Science: The British Association for the
Advancement of Science, 1831--1981* edited by Roy MacLeod and Peter
Collins. Science Reviews, Ltd., Northwood.

	_____. 1986. ?Scientific Method and the Rhetoric of Science in
Britain, 1830 - 1917? *The Politics and Rhetoric of Scientific Method:
Historical Studies* edited by John A. Schuster and Richard R. Yeo. D.
Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht.



History of Economics items 

Checkland, S.G. 1951 ?The advent of academic economics in England.? *The
Mancester School*. 19 (January), pp. 43 - 70.

_____. 1949. ?The propagation of Ricardian economics in England.?
*Economica* 16 (February) pp. 40 - 52.

Coats, A. W. 1968. ?The Origins and Early Development of the Royal
Economic Society.? *Economic Journal*. LXXVIII, No. 310 (June), 349?371.
(Treats the founding of the British (later Royal) Economic Association
and the *Economic Journal*)

Goldman, Lawrence. 1983. ?The Origins of British "Social Science':
Political Economy, Natural Science and Statistics 1830 - 1835.? *The
Historical Journal*. 26, No. 3, pp. 587 - 616.  

	_____. 1986. ?The Social Science Association, 1857 -- 1886: a
context for mid-Victorian Liberalism,? *The English Historical Review,*
January, vol. CI, 95?134.

	_____. 1987. ?A Peculiarity of the English?  The Social Science
Association and the Absence of Sociology in Nineteenth-Century Britain,?
*Past and Present*, February, No. 114, 133?171.

Henderson, James P. 1996. ?Emerging Learned Societies: economic ideas in
context? *J.H.E.T.* Fall 1996, pp. 186 - 206. (This is my 1996
Presidential Address to the H.E.S. which reviews the four British
learned societies before the founding of the R.E.S.  Those learned
societies were ? the Political Economy Club of London, Section F of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, the London (later
Royal) Statistical Society, and the National Association for the
Promotion of Social Science a.k.a. the Social Science Association. 

______.  1983. ?The oral tradition in British economics: influential
economists in the Political Economy Club of London? *H.O.P.E.* vol. 15,
pp. 149 - 179.  (Reviews the first 100 years of the Pol. Ec. Club of
London).  

______. 1994.  ?The place of economics in the hierarchy of sciences:
Section F from Whewell to Edgeworth?. In *Natural Images in Economic
Thought: ?markets read in tooth and claw.?*  ed. By Philip Mirowski.
Cambridge University Press. (Treats Section F of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science up to the early 20th century.

_____. 1996. *Early British Mathematical Economics: William Whewell and
the British Case.* Rowman and Littlefield. (Considers the ?Whewell Group
of Mathematical Economists? a sub-set of the Cambridge network of
science.  Includes the founding of Section F and the London (later
Royal) Statistical Society.)  

Porter, Ted. 1994. ?Rigor and practicality: rival ideals of
quantification in nineteenth-century economics?. In *Natural Images in
Economic Thought: ?markets read in tooth and claw.? ed. By Philip
Mirowski. Cambridge University Press. 

Hope this is helpful.

James P. Henderson