TOWARD A SOCIOLOGY OF PSAK

 https://traditiononline.org/towards-a-sociology-of-psak/

 Despite the tendency, particularly within the right-wing Orthodox communities, for an almost reflex-action rejection of the role of social forces in psak, the more carefully one considers the issue the more it is apparent that poskim are not simply computers and that, indeed, there are many social forces which enter into psak, both in terms of specific rulings made for individual cases and in terms of who is recognized at any given time as a reputable pasek. Nor is this an issue over which there is anyimplicit dispute between learned "right-wingers" and "modernists." A few examples from history should suffice to indicate the role of social forces and conditions in psak.