Recently, I was reading the article Manifold Destiny. It is about the problems of attribution to the solution of the Poincaré Conjecture. Throughout the discussion, the article brings up many interesting points, such as:
“Politics, power, and control have no legitimate role in our community, and they threaten the integrity of our field,” Phillip Griffiths said.
“It is not people who break ethical standards who are regarded as aliens,” he [Perelman] said. “It is people like me who are isolated.”
These reminded of similar points brought up in the book The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin. Regarding string theory and the politics within the physics community and how it affects scientific results.
I would like to know if there is a book or articles that focus on such sociological issues inside the mathematics community.
So far, the text that gets the closest to what I would like to know is Letters to a Young Mathematician by Ian Stewart. There is a section where the maths community is discussed. Ian Stewart mentions two kinds of approaches: that of the maverick, and that of collaboration; where he emphasises the value of collaboration. Still the discussion is superficial.
Note: I did not know where to ask this question. I was hesitant between MSE, MathOverflow, and AcademiaSE. I chose this as the question is specific to mathematics, but not in MOF as it is a very general question. If there is a place where this question would be more appropriate, please let me know. I am glad to post the question there.
The prize-winning essay "Manifold Destiny" mentioned in the question has an interesting cast of characters where the main protagonists both happen to be first-rate mathematicians. The essay illustrates how far a person can go in advancing dubious aims by exploiting "politics, power, and control" (as Griffiths put it).
There is a recent case that is similar in the sense that a person goes quite far in obtaining grants, collaborators, publications, international awards, an patents (but is dissimilar in the sense that the scientific credentials of the person in question are dubious to say the least).
The case involves Yaroslav Sergeyev and his system, discussed in the following posts: (1) at MO; (2) at MSE; (3) at MSE; (4) at EMS SURVEYS IN MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES.