Who knows what a mask is … and what it does? A bibliometric and textometric study of more than a century of scientific publications on sanitary masks (1892-2023)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 17618179 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Franck Cochoy (0000-0002-0382-5660, University of Toulouse, LISST (UMR CNRS 5193), Toulouse, France, corresponding author), Guillaume Cabanac (0000-0003-3060-6241, Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France), Wendeline Swart (0009-0007-4502-4283, University of Toulouse, IRIT (UMR CNRS 5505), Toulouse, France) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 55 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 756-790 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-19 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Studies of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0306-3127 • E-ISSN: 1460-3659 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/03063127251322880 |
| PMID | 40105096 |
| OpenAlex | W4408623198 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 44 |
In this article, the authors identify the disciplines that have taken an interest in masks over time, as well as how, in what proportions, according to what concerns, with what developments, and possibly with what effects. They ask whether the multiplicity of disciplinary perspectives is likely to lead to the emergence and sharing of new concerns, especially environmental ones, or whether the balkanization and juxtaposition of disciplines may leave certain aspects in the dark and thus contribute to the persistent production of a certain kind of ignorance. Based on a bibliometric and textometric study of more than 6000 scientific articles (1892-2023), they show the extent to which the Covid-19 pandemic has turned the study of masks upside down. It has encouraged the development of multidisciplinary and even interdisciplinary approaches, even if the legacy of almost exclusively medical sciences and engineering tends to severely limit hybridizations. The study highlights the possible emergence of a new movement of ‘scientization of the popular’, which leads scientists to incorporate the everyday concerns of ordinary citizens into the conduct of their research, thus challenging and reversing the well-known process of popularizing science
Denial · Discipline · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Ignorance · Multidisciplinary approach · Social science · Sociology · Engineering · Infection Control and Ventilation · Medicine · Philosophy · Psychology
Science in action
Invisible colleges; diffusion of knowledge in scientific communities.
What Covid-19 may teach us about interdisciplinarity
Dimensions
How Plastics Came to Pollute the Technical Literature
From Realpolitik to Dingpolitik or How to Make Things Public
Dissemination
Secrecies as Organized Ignorance
Institutional Ecology, `Translations' and Boundary Objects
Hurricane Katrina, contamination, and the unintended organization of ignorance
The “Problem” of Interdisciplinarity in Theory, Practice, and History
Collaboration, interdisciplinarity, and the epistemology of contemporary science
A Masked Truth? Public Discussions about Face Masks on a French Health Forum
The logic of strategic ignorance
Barriers Against Interdisciplinarity
Proving or Improving
Who knows what a woman is
The Body Multiple
Interdisciplinarity
Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern
Inert facts and the illusion of knowledge
| Highly cited | No |
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