Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts
Abstract
The ethnographic study performed by Bruno Latour engaged him in the world of the scientific laboratory to develop an understanding of scientific culture through observations of their daily interactions and processes. Latour assumed a scientific perspective in his study; observing his participants with the "same cold, unblinking eye" that they use in their daily research activities. He familiarized himself with the laboratory by intense focus on "literary inscription", noting that the writing process drives every activity in the laboratory. He unpacked the structure of scientific literature to uncover its importance to scientists (factual knowledge), how scientists communicate, and the processes involved with generating scientific knowledge (use of assays, instrumentation, documentation). The introduction by Jonas Salk stated that Latour's study could increase public understanding of scientists, thereby decreasing the expectations laid on them, and the general fear toward them. [Teri, STS 901-Fall; only read Ch. 2]
... These studies often highlight discrepancies between intended and actual design and usage of technologies (Hansen and Hauge 2017;Fatimah et al., 2015;Breukers et al., 2020). We develop a twofold operationalisation that builds on this notion of scripts to trace the recursive relationship between processes of in-scription and de-scription (Akrich 1992;Latour and Woolgar 1986;Hansen and Hauge 2017;Fatimah et al., 2015). Processes of in-scription refer to the complex social processes involved in the development of new technologies (Bijker and Law 1992;Pinch and Bijker 1984). ...
... First, investigating processes of in-scription reveals developers' implicit and explicit assumptions about potential users and the R. Schmidt-Scheele and J. Mattes Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions 56 (2025) 100994 contextual environment in which the technology will be used (Jelsma 2003;Breukers et al., 2020). The socio-technical-ecological configurations of sustainable energy transitions, thus, form the context and the 'material substance' (Latour and Woolgar 1986) that is filtered by developers and in-scribed into the digital technology. Through this process, developers construct different societal, technological, institutional, and ecological issues as relevant. ...
... In the script, developers' choices are manifested in the form of concrete technological parameters and characteristics. It is, hence, the "material operation of inscribing" (Medaglia et al., 2022, p. 248;Latour and Woolgar 1986). This also acknowledges that not everything that is anticipated or pursued during the in-scription process can actually be realised and inscribed into the digital technology. ...
Sustainable energy transitions are closely intertwined with digitalisation processes. In this paper, we analyse how the development and implementation of digital technologies are deeply embedded in socio-technical-ecological configurations of sustainable energy transitions and consequently reflect these configurations. We contribute to the emerging body of literature that investigates the complex relationship between digitalisation and sustainability transitions, often framed as "twin transitions". We develop a conceptual framework that combines the interplay of actors, institutions, technologies and ecological boundaries as core analytical dimensions in transition studies with the concept of scripts from Science and Technology Studies. Scripts allow us to investigate how actor constellations, institutional settings as well as technological and ecological requirements are inscribed into a digital technology and described -i.e., interpreted and put into action-by a variety of actors. In this way, we analyse how and which configurations of ongoing transitions are manifested in the technological script. This offers an approach to better understand and reflect on whether and how digital technologies may unfold their often anticipated transformational capacity in transition processes. We illustrate the applicability of our framework with insights from a case study on digital technologies to be installed at onshore wind power plants to detect avian species and curtail turbines when protected birds are at risk of collision.
... The science and technology studies literature has described science in action, particularly through ethnographic studies of the places and sites of science (see Knorr-Cetina (2001) for an overview of laboratory studies, and Bowker (1994) and Kohler (2002) for research on field-based science). Latour and Woolgar (1979) portrayed laboratories as inscription machines, where scientists generate knowledge through cycles of document creation and use. Their case study details the work of molecular biologists, which I reinterpret through a genre theory lens in the following scenario: ...
... Rui's information interactions can be nonlinear, as the relationships between genres are complex and often form rhizomatic connections (Spinuzzi, 2015). Such understandings have been theorised in the science and technology studies literature in ways that articulate the work performed by documents (Frohmann, 2004;Knorr-Cetina, 1981;Latour and Woolgar, 1979). In library and information science, Day (2021) frames Latour's (1996) conceptualisation of information within the concept of documentality (cf. ...
Introduction. This paper examines genre knowledge and its influence on scientists’ interactions with various document types, or genres, throughout the scientific process. Method. The paper reviews genre theory, including its applications in prior research within library and information science. Then, it presents a scenario involving a molecular biologist, based on findings from science and technology studies. Analysis. The analysis traces the biologist’s activities within the scenario, outlining the creation and use of various genres during data collection, analysis and reporting. Results. A research agenda based on genre knowledge is proposed to help scholars and practitioners in library and information science better understand and support scientists’ interactions with genres. Conclusion. The paper advocates for studying genre knowledge to further develop theoretical and practical insights into scientists’ document practices. This approach bridges cognitive and sociocultural perspectives on information interactions, and may clarify how emerging scientists acquire these skills.
... Latour's explicit target is the representationalist idea that scientific illustrations in journal articles would be reproductions of some real objects through some relation of similarity. Latour had attacked this notion already in his earlier writings claiming that, in reading a scientific article, one easily forgets that their illustrations and diagrams are, in fact, the result of complex material and instrumental processes (e.g., Latour & Woolgar 1986). Latour's photos of the group's work, which the text (philosophically) comments on, describe this very process: the natural object is turned, through a series of material and instrumental translations, into a successively more abstract phenomenon. ...
... Science and technology studies have addressed the multitude of devices that configure, regulate, and institutionalise material translations that are crucial for abstraction. Scientific laboratories as habitats for the construction of facts and manifold representations have especially intrigued constructivist science studies Woolgar 1986 [1979]). At the end of the 1970s and in the early 1980s, a number of so-called laboratory studies 6 appeared in science and technology studies with their published goal of "[d] irect observation of the actual site of scientific work (frequently the scientific laboratory) in order to examine how objects of knowledge are constituted in science" (Knorr-Cetina 1983, 117). ...
In this chapter we put the work of Finnish conceptual and environmental artist, Lauri Anttila (1938–2022), in dialogue with discussions of the practices of scientific and mathematical representation. We are interested in the counterintuitive claim that abstraction crucially involves concreteness: instead of thinking about abstraction in opposition to the concrete, we focus on the importance of concrete actions, methods, and instruments in achieving abstract representations. In particular, we study the process of abstraction as a chain of “material translations” that engages with our cognitive abilities, representational and other artefacts, and diverse epistemic contexts in various ways. To examine and illustrate abstraction as material translation, we study Anttila’s work, Homage to Werner Holmberg (1985–1986), which parodies scientific representation in seeking to render with scientific methods the landscapes in the paintings of Werner Holmberg, a Finnish landscape artist from the 19th century. We study the striking parallels between Anttila’s artwork and the writings on scientific representation by Bruno Latour and Michael Lynch. The comparison of these analyses of scientific abstraction, rendered both artistically and through scholarly discussion, allows us to widen the scope of the philosophical discussion of abstraction in science that has so far been too narrowly focused on omission.
... In this manuscript, we understand the collaborative knowledge production as an inherently social process, thereby following various authors both from the fields of social sciences [28,29] as well as from mental health user/ survivor-led research [23,24]. Such understanding conceptualizes research as emerging from situated encounters between the researchers and other participants involved, positioning the knowledge produced in a spectrum of institutional, political, cultural, and individual influences, such das the researchers' differences in socioeconomic status, positionalities, interests, values, and needs. ...
... As demonstrated in the introduction and our results, it makes a critical difference by whom knowledge is produced [29]. Research is a social process, shaped by concrete experiences, disciplinary, professional, and personal backgrounds of the researchers involved and their material-interactional conditions [28]. So it was in our project: to start with the UR, all of them had either worked as PSWs themselves or used these services in the past. ...
Background
Collaborative or co-productive approaches in the field of mental health care research are often legitimized by the argument that researchers with lived experience of mental health crisis and disability (= LE) produce different knowledge as compared to those without these experiences At the same time, there is a lack of studies that report on the underlying collaborative processes and on how these processes affect the knowledge that is being produced. This manuscript describes a collaborative research process and how this process impacted the knowledge produced.
Methods
The collaborative research process entailed a multi-step coding process, using a variant of thematic analysis. To facilitate comparison, two code systems were produced, one by researchers with and the other by researchers without LE of mental health crisis and disability. Subsequently, the code systems of these two sub-teams were integrated into a single code system. To evaluate the potential differences between the code formations of the two sub-teams as well as the effects of their integration, three focus groups suceeded, composed of 1) psychology students as well as researchers 2) with and 3) without LE, whose results are at the core of this manuscript.
Results
The focus group participants described extensive differences between the code formation of the researchers with and without LE – first in form, but also more substantially in the contents of both systems – corresponding to two distinct logics for understanding the implementation of PSW: an “institutional” and “interactional” logic. The integration process of both code systems was described as invasive, resulting in a final code system that more closely resembled the primary code system of the researchers without LE.
Conclusion
The distinct logic of the two code systems can be thought of as distinct but complementary positions on the topic of PSW implementation. Such an explanation, however, falls short, as it silences the power relations and diverging interests and positions of the researchers involved. This is supported by what resulted from the integration of both code systems, resulting in the continuation of the logic of the researchers without LE. It is concluded that epistemic struggles and their knowledge politics require greater attention in the context of collaborative mental health research.
... Crediting is the first step in valuing scientific contributions, typically quantified through various metrics that help build a scientist's reputation. This process plays a critical role in the broader context of rewarding researchers, which encompasses aspects such as academic promotions, grant opportunities, and access to resources that support future discoveries (Latour and Woolgar, 1986;Shibayama and Lawson, 2021). Scientific discoveries gain credit through community attribution, peer review, and citations, and sometimes through patents (ALLEA, 2023). ...
... The preparatory step led us to develop a shared terminology around research recognition and rewards in OS (Grattarola et al., 2023f) as a common understanding of the terms and concepts mapping this landscape ( Figure 1, step 2). This included considering intangible rewards like acknowledgments, citations, and co-authorship (Hicks, 2012;Latour and Woolgar, 1986) and tangible ones such as funding and career promotion (Haeussler et al., 2014;Nelson, 2016;Shibayama and Lawson, 2021). Opportunities for future collaboration were also reported as possible rewards for sharing (Haeussler et al., 2014;Shibayama and Baba, 2011). ...
Open Science contributes to the collective building of scientific knowledge and societal progress. However, academic research currently fails to recognise and reward efforts to share research outputs. Yet it is crucial that such activities be valued, as they require considerable time, energy, and expertise to make scientific outputs usable by others, as stated by the FAIR principles. To address this challenge, several bottom-up and top-down initiatives have emerged to explore ways to assess and credit Open Science activities (e.g., Research Data Alliance, RDA) and to promote the assessment of a broad spectrum of research outputs, including datasets and software (e.g., Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment, CoARA). As part of the RDA-SHARC (SHAring Rewards and Credit) interest group, we have developed a set of recommendations to help implement various rewarding schemes at different levels. The recommendations target a broad range of stakeholders. For instance, institutions are encouraged to provide digital services and infrastructure, organise training and cover expenses associated with making data available for the community. Funders should establish policies requiring Open Access to data produced by funded research and provide corresponding support. Publishers should favour open peer-review models and Open Access to articles, data, and software. Government policymakers should set up a comprehensive Open Science strategy, as recommended by UNESCO and followed by a growing number of countries. The present work details different measures that are proposed to the stakeholders. The need to include sharing activities in research evaluation schemes as an overarching mechanism to promote Open Science practices is specifically emphasised.
... Another central interest in constructivist STS is how science and technology come into being Woolgar, 2013[1979]; Haraway, 2013Haraway, , 2017Knorr-Cetina, 2007). In this regard, STS scholarship has produced a rich repertoire of concepts exploring the relationship between the imaginary and the real, the future and the present such as technological metaphors (Wyatt, 2016), expectations (Borup et al., 2006), imaginaries (Jasanoff and Kim, 2015), and promises (van Lente and Rip, 2012). ...
... To trace the performative agencies of sociotechnical fictions, this paper has shown how fiction has been philosophically understood as a category that navigates between truth and fabrication (Esposito, 2017;Iser, 1994). Sociologically, scholars such as Knorr-Cetina (1994) and Latour Woolgar, 2013[1979]; Latour, 2013) have demonstrated how fiction is deeply embedded in scientific knowledge production, albeit often unacknowledged. Ezrahi (2012), in turn, highlighted its role in political institutions through the notion of 'necessary fictions.' ...
This paper coins and develops the notion of sociotechnical fiction: a type of fiction distinct from literary or cinematic forms, which operates within the technosciences to materialise non-existent, imaginary entities through the production of new technological assemblages. Adopting a performative approach to actor-network theory, the research explores how these fictions mediate the continuum between matter and imagination, and between present and future, through a comparative analysis of related concepts such as future visions, promises, expectations, imaginaries, metaphors, and anticipatory practices. Sociotechnical fictions are thus defined as mediated forms of imagination that address the inherent uncertainty of future-oriented technological projects. Often unrecognised as fiction, they are deeply entangled with rational and instrumental practices, connecting the anticipatory dimension of technology with its legitimacy. The paper outlines the epistemic, aesthetic, affective, and normative agencies of sociotechnical fiction and illustrates them through cases including the metaverse, algorithmic counterfactuals, the cloud, artificial intelligence, Theranos, and WeWork.
... Actor-network theory, abbreviated as ANT, is a sociological theory proposed and developed by French sociologists Bruno Latour, Michael Callon, andJohn Law in the 1980s and1990s. As the major architect of the actor-network theory, Latour argued that for a better understanding of a society, one must investigate human and non-human actors (Latour & Woolgar, 1979). Another proponent and contributor of ANT, Callon, used the concept "translation" to describe the emergence of a network, denoting all kinds of interaction such as negotiation, persuasion, disputes, and even violence between the actors, with " translation" consisting of four critical moments: problematization, interessement, enrollment, and mobilization (Callon, 1984). ...
Introduction: Increasing complexities and changes in global sport governance required the collaboration of international organizations and governments, with traditional governance issues such as gender conflicts still persisted, while new conflicts continued to emerge, international organizations were not able to tackle governance challenges solely. Objective: The study focused on the collaborative governance between the International Olympic Committee and United Nations Women. Methodology: This study constructs diachronic corpus in the framework of actor-network theory, with which high frequency governance participants and keywords were analyzed via AntConc 4.2.4, while BibExcel and Ucinet 6.0 were employed to illustrate their heterogeneous networks, main problems faced in each period as well as participation in a chronological manner. Utilizing the Blau index and Ucinet 6.0, the study calculated networks’ heterogeneity index and density, exploring the development and mechanism of collaborative sport governance. Results: The collaborative sport governance revolved around female leadership, anti-violence and welfare; campaigns and programs need to integrate organizational governance, Olympic legacy inheritance, governmental gender equality, commercialization of sponsorship, etc; governance participants were the most diverse from 2017 to 2019 and exhibited the highest connectivity from 2020 to 2024, indicating that the diversity of participants in collaborative sport governance fluctuated with problems, but multilateral connections have witnessed a continuous steady increase. Conclusions: Governance participants need to balance interests and risks, adopt changes and seek common grounds while respecting differences, therefore forming a diverse, inter-connected, stable and sustainable mechanism for collaborative sport governance, and ultimately achieving gender equality.
... Levin (2010) argues that cultural beliefs rather than putative objective evidence constitute the actual basis of official education policy. Latour et al, (1986) claim that the practice of science reflects the operation of particular cultural values. Ceteris paribus neo-liberal governments logically may prefer private or Third Sector cultures in view of a definitive perceived affinity to their ideological outlook on governance. ...
This paper contributes to our understanding of a supposed free-market in research, where knowledge-transfer is to government, which then brokers the evidence into professional fields. Education research contracts are put out to tender by Scottish Government and a constellation of factors constructing this phenomenon has epistemological and political parallels with neo-liberal doctrines shaping research in the US and elsewhere. Conceptions of research capacity are discussed, and the relationship of universities and other research actors to applied research is explored. The empirical knowledge presented locates these matters within the idiom of neo-liberalism and Bauman’s cognate idea of liquid modernity where networks are bound to thrive. Neo-liberalism is demonstrated in terms of a paradigmatic material shift in state funding and topic focus. The public sphere is shown to shrink in comparison with a vibrant Third Sector. It is theorised that market-researchers are most suited to delivering the numerical political knowledge used to govern. Market- researchers are neo-liberal knowledge workers suited to utilitarian intellectual labour, and, unlike critical academics their quantitative research outputs are congruent with Lyotard’s account of research under post-modernity: system-compatibility is a paramount yardstick of worth. That said, ideological leanings within academia foster convergence towards the commercial market research field: academics, as capitalist entrepreneurs, are involved with supporting market research companies.
... The role of science in societal decision-making processes plays and increasing role since the early 1960s. Pioneering works such as E.M. Rogers' "Diffusion of Innovations" (Rogers 1962) or Latour and Woolgar's "Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Facts" (Latour and Woolgar 1986) have shaped our understanding of how scientific knowledge is produced, disseminated, and translated into societal impactoften beyond its original disciplinary boundaries. (Boaz et al. 2019). ...
The impact of research is gaining increasing importance, as science is increasingly seen as a means to address humanity’s grand challenges. Consequently, interaction between science and policymakers is essential — a process formalized through Science-Policy Interfaces (SPIs). But who actually participates in these processes? This question is crucial, as scientific findings are not always consistent: they may be subject to interpretation, contradict each other, or be shaped by underlying normative frameworks. This paper explores the potential of bibliometric analysis to trace science-policy interactions, using the Wildfire Risk Management (WFRM) domain as a case study. Drawing on data from the Dimensions database, we examine publication and policy trends, disciplinary coverage, and the influence of Altmetrics on policy citations. Our key findings indicate that: There is a significant time lag (6–9 years) between scientific publication and policy adoption. The number of publications in a research field correlates with policy citations, but not all disciplines are equally represented in policy documents. Altmetrics, particularly social media attention, influence policy uptake, suggesting that visibility beyond academia plays a role in knowledge transfer. Data quality issues in linking scientific research to policy documents persist, limiting full traceability. Despite these limitations, the study highlights the potential of bibliometric approaches to support the development of more transparent and accountable SPIs. With improved data infrastructure, such methods could help policymakers better identify and integrate relevant scientific insights.
... The starting point for understanding wicked problems is to understand scientific ideas (and the consequent management practices) are by-products of an age, influenced directly or indirectly by the social foundations in which they were created. Knowledge is, thus, socially, historically, and culturally dependent (Latour, 2013). There cannot be a neutral foundation for comprehension, and a strictly objective verification is not possible (Barlas and Carpenter, 1990). ...
The transition from the current fossil fuel-based economy toward one that relies on renewable sources of energy allegedly will require a set of minerals for manufacturing batteries that store this energy and power electric devices. Deep seabed mining (DSM) is an economic activity that has the potential to fill these material requirements as it relies on collecting rich mineral resources from the bottom of the ocean. This activity brings enormous challenges to regulation and potentially irreversible impacts on a large scale. In addition, the seabed is considered a common heritage of humankind, and therefore, questions of distributions of burdens and profits also emerge. We build on the premise of social justice, legitimacy, and participatory processes to discuss six perspectives that should be considered while dealing with DSM. We claim that DSM should be seen through a wicked problem lens, acknowledging the limits of ignorance squared, inside a scientific paradigm open to the possibility of a post-normal science. Participation should center on recognizing plural rationalities, ensuring justice and capabilities, and actively including the global South. We conclude that DSM's legitimacy can be enhanced by following these six perspective guidelines.
... However, when used by the public or students, inscriptions are perceived as evidence instead of data (Sandoval & Millwood, 2005;Xiao, 2020). In short, inscriptions have a critical role in argumentation since they convert scientific representations into public facts (Latour & Woolgar, 1979) or evidence by rhetorical references, as in this study. From this perspective, inscriptions are used in argumentations, but they are influenced by the society and culture in which scientific practices take place (Roth & McGinn, 1998;Sandoval & Millwood, 2005). ...
The main purpose of this study was to reveal middle school students' argumentation quality, use of inscriptions, and sources of knowledge regarding genetically modified organisms (GMO). It also aimed to identify predictors of students' argumentation quality based on their epistemological beliefs and use of sources of knowledge about GMO. The study sample consisted of 579 seventh and eighth-grade students from the Çankaya district of Ankara. Correlational research approach was employed. Data were collected using the Genetically Modified Organisms Task, including a case, open-ended questions, inscriptions, the Use of Sources of Knowledge Questionnaire, and the Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics showed that students had moderately sophisticated epistemological beliefs in justification, source/certainty, and development dimensions. They used a relatively high number of inscriptions, with mostly four out of six inscriptions they were asked to use. Students' argumentation quality was relatively low, as most students failed to generate counterarguments and rebuttals. They scored moderately low on the use of knowledge sources across all dimensions. Pearson correlation analysis revealed that argumentation quality correlated with all dimensions of epistemological beliefs and sources of knowledge except school resources. Moreover, visit and external resources were related to epistemological beliefs’ development and justification dimensions. Multiple regression analysis indicated that argumentation quality was predicted by epistemological beliefs (except development) and visit resources. The present study contributes to the literature by simultaneously examining relationships between cognitive and affective variables, which are important indicators of functional scientific literacy.
... Let us briefly consider how this circumnavigation of social contingency puts a Cartesian project at odds with actual scientific knowledge production. By contrast with the Cartesian focus on the individual mind, scientific knowledge inherently refers to social communities (Kuhn, 2012;Pritchard, 2022) and their particular sociotechnological and expert niches (Hacking, 1983;Latour & Woolgar, 2013). As such, scientific practices centrally involve socially scaffolded sources of predictive and descriptive reliability (Longino, 1990;Rouse, 2019Rouse, , 2022. ...
4E (embodied, enactive, embedded, and extended) approaches in cognitive science are unified in their rejection of Cartesianism. Anti-Cartesianism, understood as the rejection of a view of the relation between the mind and the world as mediated (e.g., by mental representations), is a watchword of the 4E family. This article shows how 4E approaches face hitherto underappreciated challenges in overcoming what has been termed the “representational pull” (Di Paolo et al., 2017) of the mediational, Cartesian standard in cognitive science. I argue that present proposals for reaching “escape velocity” from representational pull underestimate the force of mediationalism as part of the territory of cognitive science itself. I then offer a historical contextualization of representational pull in contemporary cognitive science as symptomatic of the latter’s methodological commitment to approaching questions about minds and cognition at the level of individual agents. Rather than resulting from a misapplication of cognitive science, the persistent pull of mediationalism is a function of a core commitment to methodological individualism which continues to define the enterprise of cognitive science. Finally, I will discuss potential options for how 4E theorists might seek to combat the continuing mediational pull at the core of cognitive science.
... Вопрос о нынешней востребованности больших теорий требует краткого исторического экскурса. Кажется, не ошибусь, если скажу, что толчком к распространению скепсиса в отношении метанарративов в социальных науках стала небольшая книжка Жана-Франсуа Лиотара, увидевшая свет в 1979 г. [Lyotard 1979] (по-русски она была опубликована двумя десятилетиями позднее: [Лиотар 1998]), хотя к кризису легитимации научного знания, как известно, еще раньше приложили руки несколько поколений философов науки -от Людвига Флека, работа которого о научном факте прошла сначала незамеченной [Fleck 1935] и стала известной лишь благодаря сославшемуся на нее в своей «Структуре научных революций» Томасу Куну [Kuhn 1962: VI-VII], до замыкающих (на сегодняшний день) эту плеяду Бруно Латура и его коллег из числа критиков конструктивизма (ср.: [Latour, Woolgar 1979;Latour 1987]). Так или иначе, к концу века ситуация в антропологии была такова, что один из ее тогдашних лидеров, работа которого не утрачивает своей актуальности и сегодня, Йоханнес Фабиан выступил на страницах одного из журналов со статьей с симптоматичным заглавием «С таким изобилием критики и рефлексии -кому нужна теория?» ...
This “Forum” considers attitudes towards theories and theoretical knowledge among ethnologists and anthropologists. Answering questions from the forum organisers, its participants discuss the need for a common “grand theory” that would unite the entire anthropological community, the tense relationship between theory and description, the causes, manifestations and effects of theory fatigue — and also the need for it, its shortage — and overproduction. The most promising theoretical concepts are noted in the responses (in particular, different opinions are given on the post-anthropocentric vector in humanitarian studies). The authors discuss the extent to which the “vitality” of theories depends on external and internal factors, share their personal experience and strategies for dealing with theories: their selection, combination, transformation and production. The responses of the participants reveal significant differences in approaches to understanding the essence and functions of theory in anthropology. In part, these differences are due to the different understanding of the subject of anthropology by the participants (as the history of the emergence of culture and society — or of their functioning). An important issue of the “Forum” is the (im)possibility of theory’s becoming a space for common conversation in anthropology. Hopes for the realization of this possibility are associated with overcoming the subject-object paradigm, and the obstacle to it is the generative model of theorising, which prescribes not working with existing concepts, but generating new ones.
... We create new research landscapes, wherein the social and biophysical features of the landscape are altered by our study of them. (Law, 2018, p. 89) Dominant Eurocentric scientific philosophy and practice assume that objectivity, value neutrality, universality, and isolation from politics are the basis of the scientific endeavor (Douglas, 2009;Harding, 1992a;Latour & Woolgar, 1986;Liboiron, 2021b;Medin & Bang, 2014). These assumptions imply that knowledge generated through the scientific process exists in a social and cultural vacuum-what feminist scholar Donna Haraway describes as "a conquering gaze from nowhere" (Haraway, 1988, p. 581). ...
The environmental sciences community cannot meaningfully address the compounding ecological and societal crises of our time without also addressing epistemic oppression—the persistent, systemic exclusion that dismisses or erases certain forms of expertise in knowledge production and scientific practices. Epistemic oppression is justified by the inaccurate assumption that scientific knowledge is neutral, value‐free, and objective. This assumption persists because science practices omit information about who we are and how we come to know the world in our work. It operates through the construction of knowledge hierarchies at three levels: (1) privileging particular worldviews of individual scientists, (2) privileging certain academic disciplines, and (3) privileging Eurocentric knowledge systems. To limit epistemic harms, we need to acknowledge that the sciences are inherently relational (i.e., emerge out of relationships among scientists and what we study) and situated (i.e., dependent on the social context surrounding knowledge production). By recognizing and reflecting on assumptions of neutrality, we can transform the scientific community toward fostering greater inclusion and acceptance of diverse worldviews, theories of knowledge, and methodologies to simultaneously address today's wicked problems and advance true diversity, equity, and belonging. Moving from concepts to practice, we outline several reflexive strategies and offer examples and guiding questions to acknowledge our standpoints in scientific research. By embracing reflexivity in our practices, including making our positionality in our work explicit, the environmental sciences can become more inclusive and effective at addressing the compounding crises of this era.
... как конструктивный подход, деятельный вызов в рамках консолидации исследований науки и технологий. Содержательные идеи этой теории были впервые высказаны в работе [Latour, Woolgar 2013]. Для Б. Латура актор -понятие, снимающее различие между социальным и материальным порядками (мирами), т. е. по сути социотехническая категория в силу своей гибридности. ...
Online communities are not only platforms for self-expression but agents of socio-political mobilization. The authors studied the potential of online communities for their impact on the youth. In this context, mobilization means encouraging young citizens to participate in social and political initiatives. Opinion makers use online communities to accumulate various types of social, network, and digital capital to implement certain socio-political actions and achieve their goals. The research revealed the regions with the most numerous and effective online youth communities in the context of social and political mobilization, as well as assessed their potential. Online communities unite young people around common interests and goals, offering new forms of interaction and participation. As the youth adapt to social changes and new digital technologies, their influence on socio-political processes increases because they are effective as information providers and organizers.
... Bu bağlamda makalenin yaklaşımı, epistemolojik realizm veya rölativizm uçlarına savrulmaktan ziyade, yapısal bir bütünleşme (constructive integration) perspektifini benimser. Yani bilginin, bir yandan dış dünyadaki olgu ve veri setlerinden kaynaklanan nesnel yönlerini; diğer yandan ise bireysel ve toplumsal düzeydeki yorumlama, anlamlandırma ve kurumsallaşma süreçlerini içerdiğini ileri sürer (Latour & Woolgar, 1986). Bu nedenle, bilgi sadece zihinde saklanan veya birebir kopyalanan bir varlık olarak değil, sürekli değişen, paylaşılan, dönüştürülen ve yeniden inşa edilen bir bütün olarak anlaşılmalıdır¹ (Lave & Wenger, 1991). ...
Recent scholarly debates have questioned whether Darwinian mechanisms of variation, selection, and inheritanceoriginally formulated to describe biological evolution (Darwin, 1859)—can also account for the evolution of nonbiological phenomena. Early frameworks such as Memetics (Dawkins, 1976/2007; Dennett, 1995; Blackmore, 2011) posited that cultural transmission proceeds via discrete replicators (“memes”) that behave analogously to genes. However, critical voices have highlighted conceptual and methodological limitations in memetic approaches, particularly regarding the complexity of cultural processes, the blurred boundaries of cultural units, and the active role of human agents in transforming the cultural elements they inherit (Gould, 2020; Hull, 2012; Kauffman, 2019). This paper proposes that “knowledge,” rather than “meme,” provides a more comprehensive analytical lens to investigate cultural evolution. By examining the case of Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” (1975), the study illustrates how a knowledge-based perspective can capture the multi-layered, dynamic, and continuously reconstructed nature of cultural products.
Background and Rationale
Memetic theory is grounded in Dawkins’ (1976/2007) proposition that there exist replicating cultural units—memes —capable of being selected, mutated, and passed on similarly to genes. These cultural replicators would ostensibly compete for mental space, driving cultural evolution through differential survival rates (Dennett, 1995). Although appealing in its simplicity, memetics faces significant critiques: it risks reducing culture to mere “viral” information (Blackmore, 1999), underplays the creative agency of individuals (Hull, 2012), and struggles to delineate or measure “memes” with scientific rigor (Bloch, 2000; Kuper, 2000). As cultural artifacts often emerge from complex interplay among cognition, social structures, economic forces, and institutional frameworks, the gene-like replicator model may be too restrictive to capture cultural richness.
In contrast, the concept of “knowledge” embraces multiple layers—cognitive, emotional, social, historical, and techno logical—through which cultural elements are formed, circulated, and reinterpreted (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Polanyi, 1966). Rather than viewing cultural evolution as a series of discrete units copying themselves with varying fidelity, a knowledge-based approach recognizes that transmission involves ongoing interpretation, creative adaptation, and dynamic transformation (Lave & Wenger, 1991). From this standpoint, cultural evolution does not simply revolve around “what is copied most” but rather how cultural products are continually shaped by—and shape—the contexts in which they are performed and received.
Knowledge as a Framework for Cultural Evolution
Knowledge, in this paper, is defined broadly to include representational structures (such as musical notation), embodied practices (performance, emotional engagement), institutional processes (music schools, media), technological networks (recording, streaming), and continuous feedback loops among creators, performers, and audiences (Tomasello, 1999; Hutchins, 1995). This multi-layered perspective aligns with Darwinian principles—variation, selection, inheritance—yet acknowledges a more fluid, socially embedded mode of transmission. Rather than locating cultural “fitness” in a narrow measure of replication success, “evolutionary success” can be understood as an artifact’s ability to endure, adapt, and resonate across changing historical, technological, and social contexts.
Evolving the Concept of “Evolutionary Success”
Drawing on cultural evolution theory (Boyd & Richerson, 1985; Mesoudi, 2011), the paper introduces “evolutionary success” as a heuristic to evaluate how cultural works survive and transform over extended periods. Specifically, “evolutionary success” entails:
• Temporal Continuity: The artifact’s capacity to remain relevant or recognized across multiple generations or historical epochs.
• Spatial Diffusion: Its dissemination across diverse geographical or cultural settings.
• Adaptive Reproduction: The artifact’s capacity to be rearranged, remixed, or reinterpreted in novel contexts without losing its core identity.
• Institutional and Media Support: The extent to which formal and informal institutions (music industry, academia, digital platforms) promote, archive, or critique the work. Case Study: “Bohemian Rhapsody”
• Enduring Critical and Public Engagement: Persistent scholarly interest, continuous media exposure, and ongoing reception by listeners, performers, and other stakeholders.
• This multi-factor model goes beyond purely quantitative measures—such as sales or streaming counts—to incorporate the qualitative dimensions that foster long-term cultural viability.
Case Study: “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody,” released in 1975, exemplifies these knowledge-based evolutionary processes. Composed by Freddie Mercury, the six-minute track combines ballad, opera, and hard rock sections, defying mainstream single-length conventions of its era (Whiteley, 2006). Its initial commercial triumph—remaining at the top of UK charts for nine weeks—demonstrated its broad appeal (Wade, 2021). However, the piece’s lasting influence extends far beyond that immediate success.
Structurally, “Bohemian Rhapsody” operates as a multi-layered musical narrative, replete with shifting tonalities, styles, and performance techniques (Boss, 2016). The distinctive arrangement reveals a wealth of “knowledge” embedded within: harmonic complexity, referential allusions to opera, dramatic vocal layering, and rock instrumentation. By merging seemingly disparate musical genres, the song appeals to different audience segments, highlighting the flexible, context-bridging potential of music as knowledge.
Over subsequent decades, “Bohemian Rhapsody” has been repeatedly re-contextualized. The track soared back to prominence upon Freddie Mercury’s death in 1991, featured as a pivotal comedic moment in the film Wayne’s World (1992), and thrived anew through a host of media references—from Muppet parodies to major motion pictures (Hughes, 2019; Jenkins et al., 2013). Each reappearance feeds into the cultural imagination, demonstrating how knowledge (the layered musical, symbolic, and emotional content of the song) remains open to reinterpretation, thereby fortifying its evolutionary success (Hutchinson, 2012).
Critically, institutions and scholarly discourses have recognized the track’s significance. It has been the subject of musicological analyses (Braae, 2015), cultural commentaries (McLeod, 2001), and socio-historical research examining how Mercury’s personal background and charismatic persona shaped this iconic piece (Fouché et al., 2018). Such interdisciplinary attention reinforces the song’s status as a “classic,” a privileged position in cultural memory that further perpetuates its ongoing transformations.
Conclusions and Future Directions
By replacing the narrow meme concept with a broader understanding of knowledge, this article underscores the multifaceted, dynamic nature of cultural evolution. “Bohemian Rhapsody” illustrates how creative reinvention, institutional endorsement, technological mediation, and scholarly recognition collectively sustain a cultural artifact’s long-term resonance. Such an approach offers insights not only for musicology but also for broader studies of cultural longevity, including literature, film, and ritual practices.
Future research could apply the knowledge-based model to cross-cultural comparisons, diverse artistic forms, and rapidly evolving digital platforms where participatory culture intensifies the cycle of creation and reinterpretation. Moreover, further examination of how knowledge interacts with power structures—such as industry gatekeepers or political regimes—would illuminate additional pathways through which cultural products either achieve or fail to achieve evolutionary success. In doing so, scholarly inquiry can more holistically capture the inventive, collaborative, and dialogic dimensions of cultural life.
Ultimately, this paper posits that a knowledge framework bridges the gap between Darwinian insights on selection and the deeply social, creative, and interpretive realities of culture. Through continuous reinterpretations and contextual shifts, cultural products like “Bohemian Rhapsody” do not merely replicate; they evolve, adapt, and endure —revealing culture itself as a dynamic and resilient knowledge network.
... Rather than a process of discovering and then representing the way the world works, building knowledge is complex productive work, requiring, among other things, institutional and project management, funding for research teams, instruments and facilities, and the rhetoric of publication and persuading others of the validity of claims to knowledge (Gibbons et al., 1994). This has been explored in great detail since Latour and Woolgar's ethnography of laboratory science back in the 1970s (Latour & Woolgar, 1979). It is also amply demonstrated in historical studies of science and technology such as the investigation by Steven Shapin of Robert Boyle's pneumatic experiments in the seventeenth century (Shapin, 1984). ...
This chapter explores the concept of Creative Pragmatics, highlighting its role in fostering situated performances of knowing and dynamic sensemaking. By integrating theoretical perspectives from pragmatism, science and technology studies (STS), and social theory, Creative Pragmatics offers a framework for understanding knowledge as an active, performative and evolving process. The chapter highlights the importance of agency and creativity as iterative elements of learning, encouraging practical engagement, interdisciplinary collaboration and the active construction of knowledge. It examines how art and design practices inform Creative Pragmatics, particularly in developing adaptability, flexible problem-solving and innovation through creative approaches. By drawing connections between interdisciplinarity and performative knowledge-making, pedagogy in Creative Pragmatics prepares learners to become “wicked scientists,” individuals capable of navigating complex challenges and fostering sustainable solutions in an ever-changing world.
... Una primera generación de 111 Escrituras y discursos en la producción de reportes sobre la migración de la mariposa monarca: desigualdades y desencuentros Diálogos interdisciplinarios desde los Estudios del Discurso estos estudios se centró en analizar la semántica y la gramática de los textos, así como el lenguaje científico (Guiérrez-Rodilla, 2005;Lemke, 1997). Otros se han concentrado en reconocer distintos géneros escritos como el artículo científico, la reseña, la ponencia presentada en una conferencia académica, el texto de divulgación, el registro escrito de un experimento o las notas de laboratorio y las bitácoras de campo, proponiendo que esta diversidad textual está relacionada con las distintas intenciones comunicativas y audiencias que se involucran en la producción de significados sobre la ciencia y sus productos (Latour, 1999;Latour y Woolgar, 1986;Reid, 2019). ...
En este trabajo muestro los distintos discursos presentes en el monitoreo de la migración de la mariposa monarca realizado de manera conjunta por campesinos, científicos y funcionarios a través del análisis de un formato escrito —diseñado por una servidora pública—, episodios de entrevistas y datos etnográficos obtenidos a lo largo de un trabajo de campo realizado entre el 2014 y el 2018 en comunidades rurales ubicadas en la porción norte de la Sierra Madre Oriental.
Mi aproximación teórica y metodológica tiene su base en el Análisis Crítico del Discurso (ACD) como ha sido propuesto por Fairclough (1992a) y Gee (1999). En particular, sigo la propuesta del primer autor para realizar un análisis textual e intertextual (1992b) de materiales escritos tales como las transcripciones de entrevistas, mis notas de campo y los propios formatos. En sintonía con tales planteamientos, este trabajo busca responder las siguientes interrogantes: ¿Qué lenguajes e identida- des sociales predominan en esta actividad? y ¿Qué discursos se construyen y se imponen sobre la migración de la mariposa monarca a través de estos formatos de monitoreo?
... This study employed a Science and Technology Studies (STS) framework [94] in conjunction with computational AI models to analyse the Lyme disease controversy. STS offers a critical lens for understanding how social, cultural, and historical factors shape scientific knowledge, particularly in biomedicine and contested illnesses [46,[95][96][97]. ...
The scientific discourse surrounding Chronic Lyme Disease (CLD) and Post-Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS) has evolved over the past twenty-five years into a complex and polarised debate, shaped by shifting research priorities, institutional influences, and competing explanatory models. This study presents the first large-scale, systematic examination of this discourse using an innovative hybrid AI-driven methodology, combining large language models with structured human validation to analyse thousands of scholarly abstracts spanning 25 years. By integrating Large Language Models (LLMs) with expert oversight, we developed a quantitative framework for tracking epistemic shifts in contested medical fields, with applications to other content analysis domains. Our analysis revealed a progressive transition from infection-based models of Lyme disease to immune-mediated explanations for persistent symptoms. This study offers new empirical insights into the structural and epistemic forces shaping Lyme disease research, providing a scalable and replicable methodology for analysing discourse, while underscoring the value of AI-assisted methodologies in social science and medical research.
... Indeed, the rewarding scheme at higher education, that is popularly based on the number of publications in frontier academic journals, direct academics' efforts to conducting research for top journal publications rather than for commercial values (Hilmer et al., 2015). On this perspective, academic publications can be seen as a legitimate tool of persuasion and a symbol of achievement (Cetina, 2009;Gittelman and Kogut, 2003;Latour and Woolgar, 2013). The competition for publications might involve certain tactical activities (strategic citing and praising, squeezing publications from minor ideas, etc.), resulting in publications with insignificant contributions to the advancement of science (Binswanger, 2015). ...
Driven by recognition and promotion in academia rather than commercial values, frontier academic research is doubted about its real contribution to a country's technological progress. Against this scepticism, this paper argues that frontier academic research resembles a public good and creates important scientific foundations for industrial innovation. Once being diffused to industry, it significantly contributes to the country's technological improvement. Using a mediation analysis coupled with a panel cointegration method to analyze a dataset of 18 OECD countries during 2003-2017, this paper finds substantial support to this theory. More importantly, as frontier academic research is largely transferred through industrial R&D, the latter is the essential conduit that transforms the former into technological progress in the long run. The obtained results convey important implications for policymakers in designing national strategies towards promoting a nation's long-term technological development.
... In Laboratory Life, Latour and Woolgar (1979) revealed how scientific facts are established through a series of steps involving the mobilisation of resources, the negotiation of interpretations, and the building of consensus among researchers. They emphasised that scientific work is not solely based on objective observations or experiments, but deeply influenced by social interactions, negotiations, and the use of various scientific instruments. ...
With this commentary, we invite urban scholars to join us in exploring the bureaucratic life of urban climate resilience. Under this heading, we call for research into the intricate and often unpredictable processes of urban governance, from the formulation of general mitigation and adaptation goals to the implementation of concrete measures on the ground. While previous research on urban governance has focused primarily on political negotiations and alliance-building beforehand and on published plans after they are passed, we propose to put emphasis on the non-linear dynamics inherent in decision-making and implementation processes within city administrations. In this context, this commentary has two objectives: (1) we provide arguments for the need to (re-)focus attention on administrative processes in urban climate resilience and (2) we present a perspective that can be used to effectively study said processes. In contrast to widely used actor-oriented perspectives, our approach draws on insights from actor–network theory and integrates human and non-human actors to be studied. We illustrate our approach through an ethnographic study in the municipality of Augsburg, Germany, which serves to uncover the multiple processes of translation inherent in building urban climate resilience and to provide insights into the ways how bureaucrats shape and mediate the future of contemporary cities.
... Možda se ovom temom, u širem društvenom kontektu, najviše bavio Bruno Latur (Bruno Latour) koji već 1979. u knjizi Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (Latour & Woolgar 1979), tvrdi da naučna saznanja nijesu objektivna otkrića, već su rezultat društvenih i kulturnih procesa. Latur istražuje način na koji naučnici stvaraju i oblikuju činjenice u laboratorijskom okruženju, ukazujući na to da su naučne činjenice produkt međusobnih interakcija, komunikacije i dogovora među istraživačima, kao i alata, tehnika i organizacijskih struktura koje koriste. ...
Publikovanje je staro koliko i pisana riječ. Kroz istoriju
je imalo nemjerljive pozitivne efekte na razvoj civilizacije. Osim
urođenih i stečenih sposobnosti čovjeka da piše i objavljuje svoja
djela, publikovanje je u velikoj mjeri zavisilo i od drugih činilaca,
kao što su pismo i tehnologije saopštavanja/štampanja.
Ekonomski gledano, nije bilo profitabilno za autore, osim ako
nije služilo u svrhe propagande, manipulacije i podrške trenutnim
političkim strukturama. Publikovanje je bilo privilegija manjeg
broja društvene elite, koji su tu čast sticali talentom, a prven
stveno upornim, dugotrajnim radom i ličnim odricanjima. Kakvo
je stanje danas? Um autora se malo promijenio. Pismo, takođe.
Razvojem računarske tehnike, telekomunikacija, interneta i vje
štačke intelegencije, publikovanje, ili prosto pisanje, doživljava
ekspanziju neslućenih razmjera. Svako ima mogućnost da piše
o čemu god hoće, kada god hoće i gdje god hoće. U spoju sa
birokratskim uređenjem, marketinško-finansijskim manipulacija
ma, postaje poprilično profitabilna djelatnost, naročito za nauč
nu-istraživačku populaciju. Rezultat je gigantska količina pisa
nih materijala, toliko naraslog da se od „šume ne može vidjeti
brijeg“, da je kvantitet potpuno potisnuo kvalitet, te da je izazov
pronaći vrijedne zapise u hrpi površnosti i bezvrijednosti. U nauci
i obrazovanju ovakvo stanje pisane riječi i djela poprima razmjere
epidemije.
U izlaganju, autor daje svoje viđenje kako hiperpublikovanje
u oblasti nauke i istraživanja uništava izvorni karakter istog. Koje
su posledice takve pojave? Da li se kvalitet naučno-istraživač-kog rada pojedinca ili institucije može mjeriti prostim brojanjem
i formalnom kvalifikacijom objavljenih naučnih radova? Šta je
naukometrija, iz ugla današnjice? Kako je fenomen hiperpubliko
vanja i naukometrije postao jedan od primjera cirkularne ekono
mija ili specifičan ekosistem? Šta je kapital kredibilnosti? Kako
hiperpublikovanje i banalizacija naukometrije utiču na male ze
mlje i one u razvoju? Ko su mangupi u sopstvenim (naučnim)
redovima i kakav je mehanizam njihovog djelovanja? Primjeri
hiperpublikovanja i prevara date kategorije u domaćim i međuna
rodnim razmjerama. Kako naukometrija ulazi u kontradikciju sa
akademskim integritetom?
Generalno, zaključak izlaganja je da pojava nije jednostavna
posledica plotičkog pragmatizma, već slojevit problem koji se
razlaže na prirodno-evolucionu-biološku ravan, kao i na ravan
društveno-istorijskih odnosa. Identifikuju se i analiziraju glavni
uzroci u obliku Makjavelijeve vještine vladanja, Veberove admi
nistrativne doktrine, Loterovog društveno-političkog karaktera
nauke, postmoderne političkih sistema.
Prosta detekcija i isticanje problema nijesu dovoljni, već se on
mora shvatiti u kontekstu uzročno-posledičnih procesa i analitič
ki sagledati. Sa tim fenomenom se mora trenutno živjeti, ali ga
je potrebno postepeno kanalisati, isključivo u svrhu progresa za
snovanog na sistemu vrijednosti. Kao rezultat otvorenog akadem
skog i naučnog razgovora, treba donijeti mapu kratkoročnih i du
goročnih rješenja, uz obavezivanje kreatora zakonskih okvira da
ih formaliziju. U okviru internih akademskih pravila i upustava,
pojedine mjere i kriterijumi poboljšanja se mogu brzo primijeniti.
Ključne riječi: naukometrija, metrika, akademski integritet,
hiperpublikovanje, zloupotreba nauke, naukao kao politika, po
litika kao nauka
... The primary more-than-human approach, particularly the ant, is the ethnographic method for this project (Berry, 2011, p. 48). Other notable researchers in the field, such as Latour (Latour & Woolgar, 1979), Mol (2002), and recently Lupton (2020), have also employed this method; albeit with a critical perspective towards its conventional form. This more-than-human approach directs observers to examine the functioning of "technical-social networks," and encourages researchers to "follow" the key actors, utilizing specific techniques for interviewing them (Latour, 2005, pp. ...
The present study aims to investigate the hijab controversy in Iran based on new materialism approaches and focusing on Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory. It seeks to identify the role of Instagram, especially the Instagram camera, as an active participant in the controversy. The findings of this research, which utilized a “methodological collage” and three-dimensions—observations, document analysis, and interviews—demonstrate that Instagram has successfully “translated” and assimilated users’ goals and interests into its own values and interests, in various forms. Instagram has played a significant role in the hijab controversy by redefining and transforming the users, values, stakeholders, groupings, and other elements involved. We specifically focus on the two opposing groups—the opponents and proponents of the hijab—who form the basis of our study. This controversy is heavily mediated by Instagram itself, leading to the formulation of different action programs within the study.
... The literature on international contexts has emphasized a Cold War geopolitical framework; see e.g., Krige and Barth (2006) and Krige and Wang (2015). 3 The immense literature builds on landmarks that include Kuhn (1962), Merton (1973), and Latour and Woolgar (1979). For an early overview, see Shapin (1982). ...
... The embedded philosopher's quasi-emic form of observation sets him again apart from classical historians and philosophers of science who regard their project mostly as etic. It is notable that the embedded philosopher so charts interesting parallels to the so-called 'empirical' and 'anthropological turns' in more recent philosophy of science and interdisciplinary science studies (e.g., Shapin and Schaffer 1985;Latour and Woolgar 1986;Galison 1997;Soler et al. 2014). The motivation of these projects is the emancipation from idealised views of science and to pay more attention to the details and complexities of scholarly practice as it unfolds in the lab, office or in the field. ...
An exposition and re-interpretation of Raymond Corbey's scholarship at the intersection of antropology, philosophy and archaeology.
Resumen: Este artículo examina el concepto de la fabricación de fenómenos y entidades científicas desde la perspectiva de la filosofía y la sociología contemporáneas de la ciencia. Desafiando la noción clásica de la ciencia como un espejo pasivo de una realidad independiente, el texto explora cómo los modelos teóricos, las prácticas experimentales y las infraestructuras tecnológicas participan activamente en la construcción de los mismos objetos que pretenden investigar. Recurriendo a filósofos de la ciencia como Ian Hacking, Bruno Latour, Michel Foucault, Thomas Kuhn, Nancy Cartwright, Ronald Giere y Bas van Fraassen, el análisis integra ejemplos históricos y contemporáneos-desde el bosón de Higgs y las ondas gravitacionales hasta la biología sintética y los modelos de lenguaje-para argumentar que las entidades científicas no son ni meros descubrimientos ni invenciones arbitrarias, sino productos de procesos situados y colectivos de producción de conocimiento. El artículo concluye enfatizando la tensión productiva entre enfoques constructivistas y realistas para comprender el estatus ontológico de los constructos científicos. Palabras clave Realismo científico, constructivismo, perspectivismo científico, empirismo constructivo, fabricación de fenómenos, filosofía de la ciencia, modelos científicos, práctica experimental.
Homicide is a global burden that is unequal in risk and distribution. However, evidence required for prevention is currently fragmented across different systems of knowledge production, creating challenges in the form of missing data. Viewed through the sociology of quantification and knowledge production, this article provides methodological and ethical reflections on conducting a global systematic review of sex/gender-disaggregated homicide data. In doing so, it highlights epistemological and ontological differences that risk becoming obscured in global, comparative work on violence. The systematic review consisted of a four-step search strategy: electronic database searches, hand searches of statistics, ministry, and police websites, citation tracking, and email survey of statistics offices. Studies were included if they reported prevalence data on homicide which was sex/gender-disaggregated (by victim/offender relationship, sexual aspects, and/or motivation) by both women and men. From 194 WHO-recognised countries, data were available for just under half ( n = 84). However, there were pronounced differences between countries and regions regarding the availability of data. To avoid conflating the ‘map with the territory’ as others argue, this article follows the call from Dalmer for critical knowledge synthesis which builds contestation in to systematic review and recognises evidence in a wider (and unequal) system of knowledge production.
Integrating reading and writing instruction with scientific inquiry can enhance student learning, yet the nature of the connections between each of these learning domains remain underexplored. In this systematic review, we analysed 16 interventions in elementary education in order to develop a categorization of the functions of reading and writing within scientific inquiry. Inductive analysis resulted in three main categories of functionalities: reading and writing as support for understanding, doing, and concluding in scientific inquiry. Specific functions belonging to each category are identified and illustrated with learning activities as described in the interventions. These functions highlight a range of possibilities, informing researchers and practitioners about aligning reading and writing with scientific inquiry. The review also included a deductive analysis of instructional reading and writing support in these interventions. Findings revealed that support was minimally described, primarily consisting of explanations (including direct instructions and examples) and providing graphic organizers (e.g., worksheets with prompts). Support for reading activities focused mainly on general and disciplinary-specific strategies for reading comprehension. Writing support emphasized disciplinary-specific strategies such as writing according to an argumentation structure, preparing scientific explanations, and documenting data. The results of this study advance our understanding of the rationale for integrating reading, writing, and scientific inquiry and can inform future integrated interventions. It also underscores the missed opportunities and gaps in current interventions regarding the interactions between reading, writing and scientific inquiry in elementary education.
Der vorliegende Beitrag unternimmt den Versuch, Wissen-schaftskommunikation auch als medienästhetische Praxis zu lesen, indem die Entwicklung eines spielerischen Formats in einem geisteswissenschaft-lichen Forschungslabor untersucht wird. Das ‚Labor' wird dabei als ein Hybrid zwischen räumlichem Format und akademischer Formation verstan-den, dessen Gestaltung, Ausstattung und spezifische Praktiken miteinander verflochten sind. Im Fokus steht daher die dynamische Inter-aktion zwischen Raum und Akteur*innen, die als interdependentes System begriffen wird, das fünf Praktiken umfasst: Dokumentieren, Forschen, Spielen, Verhandeln und Produzieren. Verdeutlicht werden diese Praktiken hier am Beispiel der Entwicklung eines Brettspiels als Format der Wissen-schaftskommunikation, was mittels ethnografischer Methoden begleitet und dokumentiert wird. Anhand dieses Fallbeispiels wird schließlich das In-novationspotential des ‚Spiels' als (Forschungs-)Format, (Forschungs-) Methode und (Forschungs-)Gegenstand reflektiert. Dieser Rahmen bildet, so die Perspektive, schließlich eine spezifische ‚Labor-Atmosphäre' heraus. Ein solches ‚Spiel-Labor' lässt sich mithin als experimenteller Raum cha-rakterisieren, der konventionelle Methoden mit ästhetischen Exploratio-nen konfrontiert.
This book explores the pervasive anticipation of catastrophe in contemporary society, examining how temporal expectations shape personal and collective experiences and influence our perspectives and responses.
A Time of Disastrous Anticipations highlights the role of anticipation in shaping societal narratives, exploring strategies for redefining responses to catastrophic imaginaries. Through a combination of theoretical insights with practical examples, it offers a comprehensive view of anticipation’s impact in contemporary society. The vista of disastrous anticipations reveals that catastrophe is not so much a matter out of place, but primarily a matter out of time.
Targeted at scholars, students, and professionals in sociology, disaster studies, and public policy, this book is also valuable for policymakers and practitioners interested in understanding the societal dimension of disaster anticipation.
This chapter opens by examining the dominant linearities in academia—powerful imaginaries that guide and shape scholarly action. While offering a critical lens, it also recognizes the coherence, purpose, and logic inherent in each linear pathway, reflecting visions of progress, achievement, and value creation shaped by specific contexts and temporal conditions. To deepen understanding of the evolving temporalities of academic research, the chapter introduces two key concepts: timescapes and temporal regimes. Drawing on Barbara Adam’s work, timescapes illuminate the multiple, interwoven forms of time that characterize academic work. Meanwhile, temporal regimes conceptualize time as an exercise of power, revealing the institutional actors and contested dynamics that shape the temporal structures imposed on academia.
This chapter departs from the idea that technologies can have political and ethical values. It then offers three important approaches that try to grapple with this idea. The first is actor network theory, which departs from the idea of symmetry between human and non-human ‘actants.’ The second are theories or technological mediation, which offer us ways to understand different ‘human-technology-world’ relations. The third is value sensitive design, an approach developed by engineers to translate values into concrete design requirements. The chapter shows how each of these approaches can be applied to discuss concrete cases of technologies having values.
This paper examines the entanglement of Iranian adolescents with digital data, specifically focusing on video games as significant sources of socialization and emotional development for this particular group. Using a new materialist framework and actor-network theory, we analyse their active participation in digital environments. Through ethnographic methods, including interviews and observations, we reveal how video games facilitate emotional and social growth, fostering peer connections and community among participants. Our findings indicate that these specific digital interactions have a significant impact on the self-perception and personal growth of the adolescents involved in this research, highlighting the active role of digital data in their lives. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of adolescent development in a digital age, illustrating the interplay between technology, identity, and emotional regulation within the context of contemporary socialization for Iranian youth.
In recent decades, social scientists and humanities scholars have turned their attention increasingly to questions of ontology and have intensively explored the multiple forms and structures of being and becoming. This theoretical reorientation had far-reaching consequences for environmental anthropology, in particular for its fundamental concepts of nature and culture. This article provides an initial overview of the now extensive debate and its significance for environmental anthropology. To this end, we present empirical and theoretical points of departure, examine current research and methodological implications and finally address critical perspectives on ontological anthropology.
This chapter, Developing a Community of Partners, explores what it takes to develop a community of partners in order for knowledge producers to fill in knowledge gaps. The chapter begins with the basics of partnerships. The basics include a discussion of the need for a shared social context, reciprocity of trust, being a high-performing organization, and having a common purpose. Because partnering involves crossing organizational and knowledge boundaries, tensions, strategies to overcome tensions, and competencies are discussed. A model of intelligence partnerships is provided that includes the perspectives of U.S. policy, non-U.S. policy, publicly available data sources, and intelligence organizations and their data collection capabilities. The implications for climate security address a number of structural dilemmas. One is the partnership challenge between national security intelligence organizations whose focus is at the national government level of analysis whereas non-government organizations tend to focus at the subnational level of analysis. A second is the partnership challenge between expertise from the natural versus the social sciences. A third is the challenge between partners from the Global North and the Global South.
This interlude addresses the issue of modes of subjectivation within contemporary global science. It explores these modes through the figure of the ‘Academic Robinson’, highlighting individualisation and separation as key outcomes. This chapter deconstructs these outcomes by engaging with critiques of Robinsonades in critical theory. It argues that the figure of the Academic Robinson is founded on a causal reversal, wherein the invisible conditions necessary for academic individuation are reconstructed to present the global science order as merely the sum of individual choices driven by the maximisation of personal profit. This leads to a specific experience of alienation and reification in global academia, which, although connecting the labour of myriad individuals across the globe, presents these connections in an individualised form. The interlude concludes by providing a positive articulation of what the ‘Academic Robinson’ obscures: the common.
Background: Collaborative or co-productive approaches in the field of mental health care research are often legitimized by the argument that researchers with lived experience of mental health crisis and disability (= LE) produce different knowledge as compared to those without these experiences At the same time, there is a lack of studies that report on the underlying collaborative processes and on how these processes affect the knowledge that is being produced. This manuscript describes a collaborative research process and how this process impacted the knowledge produced. Methods: The collaborative research process entailed a multi-step coding process, using a variant of thematic analysis. To facilitate comparison, two code systems were produced, one by researchers with and the other by researchers without LE of mental health crisis and disability. Subsequently, the code systems of these two sub-teams were integrated into a single code system. To evaluate the potential differences between the code formations of the two sub-teams as well as the effects of their integration, three focus groups suceeded, composed of 1) psychology students as well as researchers 2) with and 3) without LE, whose results are at the core of this manuscript. Results: The focus group participants described extensive differences between the code formation of the researchers with and without LE – first in form, but also more substantially in the contents of both systems – corresponding to two distinct logics for understanding the implementation of PSW: an “institutional” and “interactional” logic. The integration process of both code systems was described as invasive, resulting in a final code system that more closely resembled the primary code system of the researchers without LE. Conclusion: The distinct logic of the two code systems can be thought of as distinct but complementary positions on the topic of PSW implementation. Such an explanation, however, falls short, as it silences the power relations and diverging interests and positions of the researchers involved. This is supported by what resulted from the integration of both code systems, resulting in the continuation of the logic of the researchers without LE. It is concluded that epistemic struggles and their knowledge politics require greater attention in the context of collaborative mental health research.
This study examines the emerging trend in online learning related to the phenomenon of YouTube and lo-fi music channels regarded as an aid in the process. The main object of study are the so-called Dark Academia streaming forms. This phenomenon is being examined through the perspective of critical cultural studies and qualitative research. The research sample is constituted here by the selected channels providing specific content to online learners. The significance of the study is however not just related to the Dark Academia as an internet phenomenon, but also as a contemporary cultural reflection of learning strategies.
This study aims to understand the perspectives and experiences of people in Alanya, Türkiye, who intentionally chose not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The study used Actor-Network Theory (ANT) as its methodological framework to clarify the causes of vaccine hesitancy. The primary justification for the preference for ANT lies in the multitude and intricate nature of actors within the network of vaccine hesitancy. Through a qualitative research design, the study conducted in-depth interviews with the individuals who intentionally chose not to receive the COVID-19 vaccine in Alanya. In the first phase, the text identified the key actors and intermediaries involved and how they participate in the COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy network. After analysing the key actors and intermediaries involved in the network of vaccine hesitancy, we attempted to identify the mediators that transform the meaning or elements that actors seek to convey. Identifying mediators helped us to examine how key actors and intermediaries participate in the network and around which realities they come together. In this aspect, we have identified four mediators when analysing the network of vaccine hesitancy in the context of ANT: laboratory, pandemic, media, and knowledge. Our findings identify the actors/actants that have come to the fore in the COVID-19 pandemic and played an active role in the vaccination process and reveal how they reinforce and complicate the network of vaccine hesitancy. Our article is a pioneering study in the field of medical sociology in terms of analysing the phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy using ANT.
The question of the possibility of knowledge in nature is taken up in this chapter. It takes twin tracks, on the one hand, examining the role of beauty in knowledge, paying particular attention to how the poems of Gerald Manley Hopkins show nature disclosing itself even as hidden, while at the same time discussing a number of critiques of the Newtonian and Kantian account of nature as machine. The chapter discusses how beauty is not simply a function of aesthetic appreciation, but is what motivates (in a Husserlian sense) knowledge, specifically natural knowledge. Knowledge in such an understanding is fundamentally the coming into contact with another. To know is not to possess something but rather to find oneself possessed in a web, which encompasses not alone the knower and the entity known, but both within a wider interrelation. This account dovetails with the second theme, where Schelling’s Naturphilosophie is shown to facilitate a thinking of nature as subject, as having itself agency, such that all experienced and all experiencing are modes of this natural activity. Building upon this, philosophical interpretations of Quantum Physics are discussed with particular emphasis on how human observers and agents are incorporated into nature such that the scientific approach to nature becomes itself an instantiation of natural agency through the action of measuring and experimenting.
This chapter examines the theme of meaning and shows how meaning is not what we impose on nature, but what we respond to in our various made artifacts. This is to say that nature is intelligible to us and that central to this intelligibility is our relation to making. Making discloses materiality as both mouldable and recalcitrant, with its own temporality in tension with the action of the maker. This relation of acceptance and recalcitrance in materiality is evident in the process of ruination, which shows matter in its agency and shows building to be itself an event of material history. Drawing on the threefold structure of the self as body, soul and spirit, articulated in part one, this chapter shows that any unmediated opposition between natural and artificial, intelligible and unintelligible, rests on a prior problematic dualism of body and mind. Idea formation and making are not opposed to the natural but rather occur in and through the natural.
Este artículo busca contribuir a las discusiones cada vez más frecuentes sobre las transformaciones intelectuales, personales y emocionales que experimentan con cada nuevo proyecto de investigación y colaboración quienes realizan trabajo de campo etnográfico en el marco de los Estudios Sociales de la Ciencia y la Tecnología (ESCyT). A partir de la experiencia de investigar 'insertas' (embedded) en grandes proyectos colaborativos de las ciencias del cambio global, del clima y ambientales, las autoras proponemos la noción de 'devenir' (becoming) para capturar las transformaciones positivas generales que experimentan las/los etnógrafas/os, transformaciones que van más allá de la comprensión un tanto estática y unidimensional que surge del recurso a la noción de ' roles', de uso frecuente en la literatura especializada. Concluimos con algunas observaciones sobre las transformaciones o 'devenires' que también nuestros colaboradores experimentan.
Psychological research engages with manifold phenomena, including as diverse events as verbal self-descriptions, neural activity, and societal changes. Still, the discipline owns a proper perspective onto being, identifying a genuinely psychological aspect in life. This tacit subject-matter of the discipline has been the topic of recurrent discussions in theoretical psychology, but no ultimate answer could be found. Hence, the problem of subject-matter arises. To face it, theoretical psychology requires not only knowledge about its history but also a systematic approach. This approach encompasses a methodology unlike empirical procedures, consisting of meta-methods, for instance, hermeneutic philosophy of science. Such meta-methods reveal that the problem of subject-matter partakes in a foundational hierarchy of problems which reunites psychology with philosophy. When addressing the problem of subject-matter, it becomes necessary also to explore the problem of reality.
The paper contributes to ongoing discussions about the sociopolitical implications of microbiome research reflecting on the “metabolic political economy” of the gut and cautioning against overlooking the complex tensions and ambiguities inherent in the commercialization of microbial science. It investigates the multiple processes underlying the gut’s valuation practices in the context of interactions between academic research and a startup active in the field of wellness. We argue that over the last few decades, the (re)discovery of the gut and its microbiome as a symbiotic, ecological, sensing, and thinking organ has been appropriated and captured by a number of actors. Employing the working framework offered by the concept of “biovalue” and “assetization”, we focus on the wellness and digital health industry, their collaboration with academic research, and the resulting fragmentation of the gut’s valuation practices. Through the ethnographic exploration of a personalized nutrition startup based in the UK and its partnership with a research institution in Italy, we expose how gut microbiome knowledge production takes place at the intersection of multiple and complementary scientific, economic, and health-related values and expectations. Our study unveils a nuanced relationship between data, academic dynamics, and economic drivers, with data playing a determining role in the value acquisition of the gut, well beyond its progressive features. Critically, our analysis emphasizes the necessity to examine the sociopolitical implications and future health management scenarios resulting from the gut’s role as an asset.
The archaeological settlements of the Early Neolithic Urfa region in Türkiye have garnered academic and public interest since the 1990s due to their large-scale stone architecture and rich iconography, particularly featuring phallic imagery. While mainstream narratives suggest a male-centred society in the region, feminist and queer theory approach such interpretations with a critical eye. By challenging traditional ‘male-centred society’ narratives through the lens of queer and feminist theories, this study offers a critique of existing methodologies that fail to historicize archaeological data. By recontextualizing the phallic iconography through the lens of sexuality, this study proposes a new interpretation: the phallus was not a symbol of male power, but an agent facilitating spiritual transcendence, enabling ecstatic experiences and serving as a conduit between the material and spiritual realms.
Nasze badanie koncentruje się na trwałości bardzo wysokiej i bardzo niskiej indywi-dualnej produktywności badawczej z perspektywy całości kariery naukowej. Analizujemy produktywność naukowców znajdujących się na późnym etapie kariery, czyli publiku-jących od co najmniej 25 lat (N = 320 564) i pracujących w 38 krajach OECD (w tym w Polsce). Badamy wzorce ich mobilności pomiędzy dziesięcioma klasami produktyw-ności-od najniższej (dolnych10%) do najwyższej (górnych 10%). W pracy pokazujemy, że już na stosunkowo wczesnym etapie kariery naukowej roz-kład produktywności w ramach globalnej profesji naukowej na jej dwóch krańcach jest w dużej mierze ustalony. Początkowy rozkład utrzymuje się w czasie, przez lata i dzie-sięciolecia. Najmniej produktywni naukowcy niemal nigdy nie stają się najbardziej pro-duktywni, a najbardziej produktywni-najmniej produktywni. Uderzająca jest trwałość przynależności do klas najwyższej i najniższej produktywności z perspektywy cyklu ży-cia naukowców. Nasze badanie pokazuje, że globalny system nauki pod względem roz-kładu produktywności jest wyjątkowo sztywny. W tym celu przekształcamy potężny zbiór danych bibliometrycznych dotyczących publikacji i cytowań (surowe dane z bazy Scopus) w globalne, kompleksowe, wielowy-miarowe i co najważniejsze podłużne-czyli obejmujące zmiany w czasie-źródło da-nych na temat karier naukowych setek tysięcy naukowców. Jak dotąd nie badano indywi-dualnej produktywności publikacyjnej w ujęciu globalnym z perspektywy podłużnej, nie śledzono indywidualnych karier akademickich od pierwszej publikacji przez kolejnych 25-50 lat po to, aby porównywać między sobą zmiany przynależności do klas produk-tywności w czasie. W szczególności nie badano, czy w nauce zdarzają się sytuacje skraj-ne: czy najmniej produktywni naukowcy stają się naukowcami najbardziej produktywnymi (określamy ich mianem "skoczków"; i odwrotnie, najbardziej produktywni stają się nau-kowcami najmniej produktywnymi, nazywamy ich tu "spadkowiczami")?
This Note reports some findings resulting from an exploratory analysis of the corporate tapes of the Science Citation Index (SCI), The analysis focuses on the international production of scientific literature, with a view to making a broad survey of national research activities. A narrower survey of international publication and citation activity was reported earlier for a handful of scientifically important countries.1 We have compared the international coverage of the SCI with the coverage of other abstracting and indexing services - such as Physics Abstracts, Chemical Abstracts, and Mathematical Reviews - and found it to be reasonably free from bias. The most serious bias we have found has been underrepresentation of the USSR in mathematics and biomedicine, and some underrepresentation of Japan. The extraction of the international publication data involved extensive computer manipulations of the corporate tapes. A count was made of publications (i.e. articles, notes, and reviews) associated with different national research-producing institutions. For example, if an author gave a his corporate address the University of London, the publication he authored would be assigned to the United Kingdom. When co-authorships indicated international collaboration in research, publications would be fractionally assigned to the respective countries of their authors. The 2,300 journals covered by the SCI in 1973 were further divided into 92 scientific subfields. These subfields are defined by the journals relevant to the subfields. For example, the subfield called microbiology is composed of articles published in 21 journals which are devoted to reporting research findings in microbiology. These subfields are in large measure defined by the citation patterns of publications. Journals with publications which cite each other heavily are generally assigned to the same subfield. Publications in multidisciplinary journals, such as Science, are fractionally assigned to the relevant fields which the journal represents. In order to make the present analysis tractable, the multitude of subfields were aggregated into eight fields: clinical medicine, biomedical research, biology, chemistry, physics, engineering and technology, earth and space
Reviews certain aspects of the communication crisis in science. Empirical findings relative to the nature of a scientific discipline's role in evaluating, processing, and compacting scientific information for researchers, scholars, and students are presented. An overview of data is provided, collected by the american psychological association project on scientific information exchange in psychology, together with more recent information relative to other disciplines. The roles of formal vs. Informal channels for communicating scientific information are compared. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Isolation on a preparative scale of thyrotropin-releasing hormone from porcine hypothalami is described. The yields from two batches of 100,000 and 165,000 hypothalami were 2.8 mg and 4.4 mg, respectively. The material with thyrotropin-releasing hormone activity, calculated to be purified about 570,000 times, was active in mice at doses of 1 ng in vivo, and stimulated the secretion of thyroid-stimulating hormone from rat pituitaries in vitro at doses of 10 pg. Thin layer chromatography, electrophoresis, and paper chromatography indicated that the material was homogeneous. Histidine, glutamic acid, and proline, which were present in an equimolar ratio, accounted for about 32% of the dry weight of the active material. However, eight synthetic peptides containing histidine, proline, and glutamic acid or glutamine had no thyrotropin-releasing hormone activity at doses as large at 10 µg. Biological activity of thyrotropin-releasing hormone was abolished by diazotized sulfanilic acid, N-bromosuccinimide, or acid hydrolysis, but was not affected by periodate or by incubation with proteolytic enzymes.
The quest for prestige can cause conflict between the goals of science and the goals of the scientist.
After several decades of benign neglect, the content of science has once again come under the scrutinous gaze of the sociologist of knowledge. Aberrant Marxists, structuralists, Habermasians, ‘archeologists of knowledge’ and a host of others have begun to argue (or, sometimes, to presume largely without argument) that we can give a sociological account of why scientists adopt virtually all of the specific beliefs about the world which they do. More than this, it is often claimed that only via sociology (or its cognates, anthropology and archaeology) can we hope to acquire a ‘scientific’ understanding of science itself. The older sociological tradition, which tended to take a hands-off policy where ‘sound’ scientific belief was concerned, has been variously indicted by the new wave as lacking the courage of its convictions, treating science as ‘sacred’ and unimaginatively selling short the explanatory resources of a robust sociology of knowledge.
Traditionally, the main preoccupations of philosophy of science were the justification or refutation of the conclusions of science; critical study of methodology; the pursuit of truth presupposing the quest for certainty; search for absolutes and universals; discarding the ‘merely’ psychological or merely sociological. Reason in philosophy of science was epistemic reason. History of science, while in an historiographies turmoil for decades, was mainly preoccupied with the history of Western science, and especially (though not exclusively) its successes; it was either a Marxist influenced analysis of ideas following socio-economic needs or a history of disembodied ideas. The latter presupposed that only ideas beget ideas and that an idea, once conceived, can be taken up or dropped, used or abused by an ‘external’ factor like society, with its political ideology and technical needs.
I would like to thank the following for advice, assistance, and material help: Mr S. B. Barnes, Dr A. P. M. Coxon, Dr D. O. Edge, and Dr T. R. Elsdale of the University of Edinburgh; Mr D. French, of Lanchester Polytechnic; Dr M. J. Mulkay of the University of Cambridge; Dr N. C. Mullins, of Indiana University.
I would also like to thank those crystallographers and molecular biologists who consented to be interviewed, and those who read early drafts of this paper.
The research was supported by a grant from the SSRC, and was carried out at the Science Studies Unit, University of Edinburgh, and the Department of Sociology, University of Manchester.
Cet article tente d'exposer les propriétés générales des champs de production de biens culturels et de lutte symbolique. Il se fonde sur la comparaison systématique des lois de fonctionnement de champs divers (peinture, théâtre, littérature, journalisme) : celle-ci permet l'explicitation et la formulation de propriétés qui, ressaisies sur le cas d'un champ particulier, peuvent ne se livrer que partiellement ou incomplètement.
Négliger de reconnaître et de définir l'espèce particulière de capital qui est l'enjeu des luttes entre agents c'est s'exposer à tomber dans le matérialisme partiel de l'économisme. Dans le commerce d'art, qui obéit à une logique proche de celle de l'économie pré-capitaliste, le profit proprement économique est second par rapport à l'accumulation de capital symbolique, dont une condition nécessaire sinon suffisante, est le désintéressement économique. Ces distinctions permettent de comprendre les variations dans le cycle de vie des biens culturels (les biens culturels à cycle court sont des biens qui incorporent une faible quantité de capital symbolique; les biens culturels à cycle long sont ceux dont le lancement implique un fort crédit d'autorité spécifique, qui ne se constitue que lentement). Les champs de production, comme systèmes d'agents et d'institutions concourant par leurs luttes à la production et à la distribution de ce capital, peuvent être considérés comme le système de production de la valeur des œuvres, ce qui permet de rompre avec l'illusion du sujet créateur que le vocabulaire en apparence le plus réducteur (production, producteur) conserve et renforce.
Des relations d'homologie lient d'une part les institutions de production et de diffusion de biens culturels les unes aux autres (comme le montre notamment l'étude du théâtre et de l'édition de littérature); d'autre part ces divers champs au champ des fractions de la classe dominante (comme le montre notamment l'étude de la variation des critiques de théâtre d'un périodique à l'autre). Ces relations d'homologie permettent de comprendre comme le produit d'une connivence objective ce que les critiques partielles tendent à décrire comme adhésion arbitraire (terreur exercée par la mode intellectuelle — critiques de droite contre les critiques de gauche — ; ou séduction exercée par les moyens matériels de corruption — critiques de gauche contre les critiques de droite — ). Elles permettent d'autre part de référer les luttes internes aux champs, même les plus autonomes en apparence aux luttes externes, luttes politiques entre fractions de classe dominantes et entre classes.
La temporalité propre des champs de production résulte des mouvements internes de lutte entre agents et s'inscrit dans des types différents d'entreprises de production. Les entreprises de production et de diffusion peuvent se situer sur un continuum dont les deux pôles extrêmes sont, d'une part, la production de biens symboliques de cycle court gérés à la façon de biens économiques ordinaires, d'autre part, la production risquée et lente de biens symboliques de cycle long. En luttant pour définir des positions nouvelles et pour introduire des écarts significatifs, les nouveaux venus dans le champ produisent l'avant-garde et renvoient l'avant-garde précédente vers le passé.
The replication of scientific experiments is discussed stressing the problem of communication between the originator of an experiment and a scientist intending to replicate it. Models of communication are set up, with reference to established fields. A more marginal field is then investigated in the light of these models and it is concluded that scientists in the latter field should not be seen as engaged in replicating original experiment, but in negotiating the rules of replication, and hence the nature of the phenomenon under investigation.
This paper is an empirical analysis of the way in which a group of scientists sought to maximize the attractiveness of one of their papers. It records negotiations about the title, the introduction, and the second paragraph (in which a polymer was characterized). The analysis suggests that scientists array or `network' particulars in a way which they hope will allocate appropriate relative value to elements of that array. In doing so, three factors — the citation of colleagues, the display of facts, and problems of syntax — have to be simultaneously juggled.
Two recent collections of empirical reports claim to offer a new and possibly more effective agenda for the sociology of science. These claims are challenged. The `relativist' and `constructivist' programmes yield findings often of historical or ethnographic interest, but rarely new when compared to earlier theoretical writings. Moreover, methodological and metatheoretical assumptions of the programmes force a retreat from the constitutive question of the sociology of science: how does the institution of science establish and maintain its `cognitive authority'?
This paper is about how natural objects are made visible and analyzable in scientific research. It is argued that the objects scientists actually work upon are highly artificial, in that their visibility depends upon complex instruments and careful preparatory procedures. Instruments and laboratory procedures do more than provide a window to the world; they lay the groundwork for specific analytic operations which utilize literary resources to represent phenomena graphically. Two specific cases from biology are discussed. The first is from a popular field manual, and is used to introduce themes for analyzing a more complex case, a neuroscience project using electron microscopy of brain tissue. The discussion of both cases concerns how specimens are modified into `docile objects' for purposes of investigation. These modifications are summarized under the headings of `marking', `constituting graphic space', and `normalizing observations'. Finally, it is claimed that these practices make up an `externalized retina' for scientific perception — a `retina' that depends upon disciplined conduct within the laboratory setting.
Recently I presented, with others, a general statement of the sequence of social and intellectual processes which characterize the emergence, growth and final decline of specific areas of scientific endeavour. A central concern of my own research has been to examine the extent to which scientific activity in one particular area, that associated with research into the pulsar phenomenon, corresponds to the sequence of processes described in the theoretical statement. An obvious preliminary objective of my research was to write an outline history of the intellectual development of the pulsar area. Although many of the methodological problems relating to the investigation of the social development of scientific specialties have already been examined it is less widely realized that methodological problems of equal difficulty occur in the analysis of the intellectual development of specialties, even though much of the basic data can be obtained without intervention in the on-going social process. In this paper I report my
attempt to describe the intellectual history of pulsar astronomy. When I began this part of my study I was unaware of any special methodological problems. As I progressed, I not only became acutely aware that there were such problems, but I also realized they would prevent me from carrying out
my original intention of providing a straightforward chronological history of this particular intellectual
development.
Critical studies of science reject the programmatic separation between technical and social aspects of science. By analyzing the social history of controversies, the rhetoric of scientific discourse, and informal aspects of laboratory work, recent studies have attempted to demonstrate that the objective products of scientific research are fraught with social contingency. The present paper agrees that the products of scientific activity are inextricable from the social contexts of their production, but raises the further question of how the relevance of any of the potentially endless varieties of social contingency is to be established in concrete instances of scientific work. Commonly, social studies of science specify such contingent relationships by relying on the established methods of the social science disciplines, while ignoring the fact that the natural scientific disciplines studied themselves include inquiries which specify such relationships as a necessary part of their ordinary practice. The alternative recommended here is to take an ethnomethodological approach. The distinguishing feature of the latter approach is that it recognizes the analytic primacy of context-specifying activities which occur at the sites of natural scientific inquiries. A transcript of conversation in a neuroscience lab is analyzed to show how `critical inquiry' operates as a practical feature of natural science research rather than being a privilege of professional social scientists.
Opening Paragraph
In Part I of this paper, I pushed as far as it would go the thesis that important continuities link the religious thinking of traditional Africa and the theoretical thinking of the modern West. I showed how this view helps us to make sense of many otherwise puzzling features of traditional religious thinking. I also showed how it helps us to avoid certain rather troublesome red herrings which lie across the path towards understanding the crucial differences between the traditional and the scientific outlook.
This paper presents an empirical analysis of simplification processes in the scientific work place. Any scientific task involves complex sets of problems and contingencies. But the conclusions produced do not represent all details of the work performed, nor do consumers take full account of the complexity of results. This paper examines the ways in which chains of inference are simplified at all stages of the research work, from research design and sampling to publication. What is deleted in the `fact-making' process? What constraints operate to make this deletion necessary? This paper examines institutional and intersectional constraints and processes which affect the final work. The analytic approach of the paper is symbolic interactionist/Pragmatist, and field data were collected by participant observation.
This paper is part of a larger study of how knowledge is used in strategies for the solution of public issues. I examine research papers on the issue of drinking and driving, treating the scientific document as a literary, artistic product. Principles of literary criticism, utilized in the analysis of narrative, drama and poetry are applied to the presentation of research to show how statements of fact are given scientific legitimacy and how the literary formulation transfers such statements into rhetorical prescriptions for action. Theorizing and conclusion-making are shown to involve presentational devices of literary selection and language which confer policy implications upon them.
How are social and institutional circumstances linked to the knowledge that scientists produce? To answer this question it is necessary to take risks: speculative but testable theories must be proposed. It will be my aim to explain and then apply one such theory. This will enable me to propose an hypothesis about the connexion between social processes and the style and content of mathematical knowledge.
A general account is presented of the emergence, growth, and decline of scientific research networks and their associated problem areas. Research networks are seen to pass through three phases. The first, exploratory phase is distinguished by a lack of effective communication among participants and by the pursuit of imprecisely defined problems. The second phase is one of rapid growth, associated with increasing social and intellectual integration, made possible by improved communication. An increasingly precise scientific consensus gradually emerges from a process of negotiation, in which those participants who are members of the scientific elite exert most influence. But as consensus is achieved the problem area becomes less scientifically fruitful; and as the network grows, career opportunities diminish. Consequently, the third, final phase is one of decline and disbandment of the network, together with the movement of participants to new areas of scientific opportunity.
Most contemporary studies of science operate with some notion of scientific specialty communities as the basic units within which science is socially and technically organized. This paper presents a critique of scientific communities as sociological constructs which appear to be largely irrelevant to scientific work. Furthermore, the paper criticizes the prevailing quasi-economic models of such collectives for what appears to be a naive internalism and functionalism compared with the realities of scientific everyday life as they concern scientists themselves. It is argued that the arenas of action within which scientific (laboratory) inquiry proceeds are transepistemic that is, they in principle include scientists and non-scientists, and encompass arguments and concerns of a 'technical' as well as a 'non-technical' nature. The paper also argues that the transepistemic connection of research is built into scientific inquiry (and thereby into the products of research) through the decision criteria invoked in laboratory work. The paper draws upon one year of observation in a scientific laboratory in Berkeley, California, which provides the grounds and the illustrations for the theoretical arguments presented.
The isolation and synthesis of thyroid stimulating hormone-releasing factor (TRF or TSH-RF) and luteinizing hormone releasing factor (LH-RF) are discussed. Hypothalamic fragments of sheep brains were the source f rom which 1 mg of TRF was first extracted characterized and synthesize d. The relation between the hypothalamus and anterior pituitary was established experimentally by electrical stimulation of regions of the hypothalamus which interfere with secretion by the anterior lobe of specific hormones. A network of capillaries reaching the base of the hypothalamus supplies portal veins that enter the anterior pituitary and apparently nerve fibers deliver to the capillaries releasing factors that stimulate secretion of the anterior-lobe hormones. The structure of TRF obtained by high resolution mass spectrometry was found to be equal proportions of glutamic acid histidine and proline. TRF from pig brains was shown to have the same molecular structure as TRF from sheep brain which was followed rapidly by the characterization of LRF a polypeptide composed of 10 amino acids beginning with the same 2 amino a cids as TRF.
This article has no abstract; the first 100 words appear below.
Several clinical groups in this country and in Europe have recently reported data obtained after the administration of synthetic somatostatin — the latest of the hypothalamic hypophysiotropic peptides.¹²³ This issue of the Journal contains an elegant study by Yen and his collaborators on the striking effects of somatostatin in a series of patients with acromegaly. Somatostatin acutely and reversibly inhibits the secretion of pituitary growth hormone and of glucagon and insulin. What is somatostatin? How and when did it come about? Readers of the Journal are well aware of the concept establishing the hypothalamus as the modulator of the anterior . . .
Paul Brazeau, Ph.D.
Roger Guillemin, M.D., Ph.D.
The Salk Institute La Jolla, Cal, 92037
The molecular structures of several polypeptides isolated from hypothalamic tissue have been established and the synthesis of these compounds has been achieved. These polypeptides selectively stimulate or inhibit the release of anterior pituitary hormones and melanocyte-stimulating hormone. Various studies indicate their important physiological role and support the concept that some of these polypeptides are hormones. Some synthetic hypothalamic hormones and their derivatives may find important clinical and veterinary applications.
The structure of L-pyroglutamyl-l-histidyl-l-proline amide (I) is in agreement with all Qf the known chemical and hormonal properties of the thyrotropin releasing hormone (TIM) from porcine hypothalami. This structural interpretation is probably applicable to the THE of other mammalian species, and is chemically based on the chromatographic identity in seventeen diversified systems and is biologically based on a quantitative comparison of the hormonal activities of the natural and synthetic products. This formulation of structure represents the elucidation of the first of the hypothalamic hormones that have been sought for so long.
Evidence is presented for the homogeneity of a preparation of hypothalamic TRF of ovine origin and its molecular structure has been established as 2-pyrrolidone-5-carboxylyl-histidyl-proline amide. Synthetic L-2-pyrrolidone-5-carboxylyl-L-histidyl-L-proline amide has physicochemical and biological characteristics which are quantitatively and qualitatively indistinguishable from those of the natural substance isolated in this laboratory.
Quantitative determination of amino acids is made simpler and more rapid by an instrument for automatically recording the ninhydrin color value of the effluent from ion exchange columns. The influent buffer, freed of air, is pumped at a constant rate through a column of sulfonated polystyrene resin. The effluent is met by a capillary stream of ninhydrin reagent delivered by a second pump. The color is developed by passing the mixture of reagent and effluent through a spiral of capillary Teflon tubing immersed in a boiling water bath. The absorbance of the resulting solution is measured continuously at 570 and 440 mμ as it flows through a cylindrical glass cell of 2-mm. bore. The peaks on the recorded curves can be integrated with a precision of 100 ± 3% for loads from 0.1 to 3.0 μmoles of each amino acid. A hydrolyzate of a protein or peptide may be analyzed in less than 24 hours. The more complex mixtures characteristic of blood plasma, urine, and mammalian tissues can be analyzed in 2 days. The instrument is applicable in principle to detection of ninhydrin-positive constituents in the effluent from various types of Chromatograph columns.