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Present trends indicate that in the years to come transnational
science, whether basic or applied and involving persons, equipment
or funding, will grow considerably. The main purpose of this volume
is to try to understand the reasons for this denationalization of
science, its historical contexts and its social forms. The
Introduction to the volume sets out the socio-political,
intellectual, and economic contexts for the nationalization and
denationalization of the sciences, processes that have extended
over four centuries. The articles examine the specific conditions
that have given rise to the growth of transnational science in the
20th century. Among these are: the need for cognitive and technical
standardization of scientific knowledge-products, pressure toward
cost-sharing of large installations such as CERN, the voluntary and
involuntary migration of scientists, and the global market for
R&D products that has emerged at the end of the century. The
volume raises many new questions for research by historians and
sociologists of science and poses problems that are of concern both
to scientists and science policy-makers.
The prevailing view of scientific popularization, both within
academic circles and beyond, affirms that its objectives and
procedures are unrelated to tasks of cognitive development and that
its pertinence is by and large restricted to the lay public.
Consistent with this view, popularization is frequently portrayed
as a logical and hence inescapable consequence of a culture
dominated by science-based products and procedures and by a
scientistic ideology. On another level, it is depicted as a
quasi-political device for chan nelling the energies of the general
public along predetermined paths; examples of this are the
nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution and the U. S. -Soviet
space race. Alternatively, scientific popularization is described
as a carefully contrived plan which enables scientists or their
spokesmen to allege that scientific learn ing is equitably shared
by scientists and non-scientists alike. This manoeuvre is intended
to weaken the claims of anti-scientific protesters that scientists
monopolize knowledge as a means of sustaining their social
privileges. Pop ularization is also sometimes presented as a
psychological crutch. This, in an era of increasing scientific
specialisation, permits the researchers involved to believe that by
transcending the boundaries of their narrow fields, their
endeavours assume a degree of general cognitive importance and even
extra scientific relevance. Regardless of the particular thrust of
these different analyses it is important to point out that all are
predicated on the tacit presupposition that scientific
popularization belongs essentially to the realm of non-science, or
only concerns the periphery of scientific activity."
block possible Soviet expansion by mobilizing European
"democracies," the policy soon extended to some developing
countries in Asia and Latin America. In response, the USSR
gradually initiated development programs for newly independent
nations in Asia and Africa. In this context, super power rivalry
operated in the South to (i) expand spheres of influence and
control; (ii) guard Southern nations from the influence and
incursions launched by the opposed camp; (iii) stimulate indigenous
development. With few exceptions, Southern nations provided little
input to the definition and execution of North-South dynamics
during this period. In the case of Africa and to some extent Asia,
the acquisition of independence was so recent and often sudden that
there was little time to reflect on the kind of policies and
measures needed to build bal anced relations with the former mother
country. In Latin America, the Monroe Doctrine had long insured
that the region was a virtual captive of the US. Aid for
development was contingent on conformity to US political and
economic interests. The cognitive component of South-North dealings
strongly reflected the two above mentioned dispositions. The
relative lack of political experience in the South. and the dearth
of an organized and sizable intellectual/academic community, meant
that there were few cognitive and human resources for undertaking
careful study and analysis of the conditions and needs of develop
ment from a Southern perspective (influential exceptions existed
though, such as Raul Prebisch in Latin America or Ghandi in
India)."
If nothing else, the twelve papers assembled in this volume should
lay to rest the idea that the interesting debates about the nature
of science are still being conducted by "internalists" vs.
"externalists,"" rationalists" vs. "arationalists, n or even
"normative epistemologists" vs. "empirical sociologists of
knowledge. " Although these distinctions continue to haunt much of
the theoretical discussion in philosophy and sociology of science,
our authors have managed to elude their strictures by finally
getting beyond the post-positivist preoccupation of defending a
certain division of labor among the science studies disciplines.
But this is hardly to claim that our historians, philosophers,
sociologists, and psychologists have brought about an "end of
ideology," or even an "era of good feelings," to their debates.
Rather, they have drawn new lines of battle which center more
squarely than ever on practical matters of evaluating and selecting
methods for studying science. To get a vivid sense of the new
terrain that was staked out at the Yearbook conference, let us
start by meditating on a picture. The front cover of a recent
collection of sociological studies edited by one of us (Woolgar
1988) bears a stylized picture of a series of lined up open books
presented in a typical perspective fashion. The global shape comes
close to a trapezium, and is composed of smaller trapeziums
gradually decreasing in size and piled upon each other so as to
suggest a line receding in depth. The perspective is stylized too.
If nothing else, the twelve papers assembled in this volume should
lay to rest the idea that the interesting debates about the nature
of science are still being conducted by "internalists" vs.
"externalists,"" rationalists" vs. "arationalists, n or even
"normative epistemologists" vs. "empirical sociologists of
knowledge. " Although these distinctions continue to haunt much of
the theoretical discussion in philosophy and sociology of science,
our authors have managed to elude their strictures by finally
getting beyond the post-positivist preoccupation of defending a
certain division of labor among the science studies disciplines.
But this is hardly to claim that our historians, philosophers,
sociologists, and psychologists have brought about an "end of
ideology," or even an "era of good feelings," to their debates.
Rather, they have drawn new lines of battle which center more
squarely than ever on practical matters of evaluating and selecting
methods for studying science. To get a vivid sense of the new
terrain that was staked out at the Yearbook conference, let us
start by meditating on a picture. The front cover of a recent
collection of sociological studies edited by one of us (Woolgar
1988) bears a stylized picture of a series of lined up open books
presented in a typical perspective fashion. The global shape comes
close to a trapezium, and is composed of smaller trapeziums
gradually decreasing in size and piled upon each other so as to
suggest a line receding in depth. The perspective is stylized too.
block possible Soviet expansion by mobilizing European
"democracies," the policy soon extended to some developing
countries in Asia and Latin America. In response, the USSR
gradually initiated development programs for newly independent
nations in Asia and Africa. In this context, super power rivalry
operated in the South to (i) expand spheres of influence and
control; (ii) guard Southern nations from the influence and
incursions launched by the opposed camp; (iii) stimulate indigenous
development. With few exceptions, Southern nations provided little
input to the definition and execution of North-South dynamics
during this period. In the case of Africa and to some extent Asia,
the acquisition of independence was so recent and often sudden that
there was little time to reflect on the kind of policies and
measures needed to build bal anced relations with the former mother
country. In Latin America, the Monroe Doctrine had long insured
that the region was a virtual captive of the US. Aid for
development was contingent on conformity to US political and
economic interests. The cognitive component of South-North dealings
strongly reflected the two above mentioned dispositions. The
relative lack of political experience in the South. and the dearth
of an organized and sizable intellectual/academic community, meant
that there were few cognitive and human resources for undertaking
careful study and analysis of the conditions and needs of develop
ment from a Southern perspective (influential exceptions existed
though, such as Raul Prebisch in Latin America or Ghandi in
India)."
these. In this book, we appropriate their conception of
research-technology, and ex tend it to many other phenomena which
are less stable and less localized in time and space than the
Zeeman/Cotton situation. In the following pages, we use the concept
for instances where research activities are orientated primarily
toward technologies which facilitate both the production of
scientific knowledge and the production of other goods. In
particular, we use the tenn for instances where instruments and
meth ods. traverse numerous geographic and institutional
boundaries; that is, fields dis tinctly different and distant from
the instruments' and methods' initial focus. We suggest that
instruments such as the ultra-centrifuge, and the trajectories of
the men who devise such artefacts, diverge in an interesting way
from other fonns of artefacts and careers in science, metrology and
engineering with which students of science and technology are more
familiar. The instrument systems developed by re
search-technologists strike us as especially general, open-ended,
and flexible. When tailored effectively, research-technology
instruments potentially fit into many niches and serve a host of
unrelated applications. Their multi-functional character distin
guishes them from many other devices which are designed to address
specific, nar rowly defined problems in a circumscribed arena in
and outside of science. Research technology activities link
universities, industry, public and private research or me trology
establishments, instrument-making finns, consulting companies, the
military, and metrological agencies. Research-technology
practitioners do not follow the career path of the traditional
academic or engineering professional."
The prevailing view of scientific popularization, both within
academic circles and beyond, affirms that its objectives and
procedures are unrelated to tasks of cognitive development and that
its pertinence is by and large restricted to the lay public.
Consistent with this view, popularization is frequently portrayed
as a logical and hence inescapable consequence of a culture
dominated by science-based products and procedures and by a
scientistic ideology. On another level, it is depicted as a
quasi-political device for chan nelling the energies of the general
public along predetermined paths; examples of this are the
nineteenth-century Industrial Revolution and the U. S. -Soviet
space race. Alternatively, scientific popularization is described
as a carefully contrived plan which enables scientists or their
spokesmen to allege that scientific learn ing is equitably shared
by scientists and non-scientists alike. This manoeuvre is intended
to weaken the claims of anti-scientific protesters that scientists
monopolize knowledge as a means of sustaining their social
privileges. Pop ularization is also sometimes presented as a
psychological crutch. This, in an era of increasing scientific
specialisation, permits the researchers involved to believe that by
transcending the boundaries of their narrow fields, their
endeavours assume a degree of general cognitive importance and even
extra scientific relevance. Regardless of the particular thrust of
these different analyses it is important to point out that all are
predicated on the tacit presupposition that scientific
popularization belongs essentially to the realm of non-science, or
only concerns the periphery of scientific activity."
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