Laboratory Studies

A Comment on the State of the Art

Bibliographic Data

ID7104430
AuthorsSteve Woolgar (0000-0003-1465-3136, Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Brunel University, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, England, UK, corresponding author)
Year1982
Volume12
Issue4
Pages481-498
Publication date1982-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSocial Studies of Science (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0306-3127 • E-ISSN: 1460-3659
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/030631282012004001
OpenAlexW2152426825
LanguageEN
Citations received42
References cited7

Current work in `laboratory studies' promises to contribute a detailed understanding of scientific practice to the social study of science. However, much depends on the extent to which we take as unproblematic the idea of studying science `as it happens'. A distinction is developed between instrumental and reflexive conceptions of the ethnography of scientific practice. The former is characterized by the use of observer experiences for preconceived theoretical purposes and by the evasion of major difficulties in the production of sociological description. Reflexive ethnography retains the ability to produce `news' about scientific work, but also opens up new ways of addressing fundamental questions about reasoning practices in general. Sources of antipathy to reflexive ethnography are outlined, notably that stemming from the selective application of epistemological relativism implicit in recent calls for a revision of epistemological attitudes to science

Antipathy · Epistemology · Ethnography · Philosophy of science · Philosophy of social science · Political science · Reflexivity · Relativism · Science studies · Social relation · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of scientific knowledge · State (computer science · Computer Science · Contemporary Sociological Theory and Practice · Philosophy · Philosophy and History of Science

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