The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science (Pergamon International Library of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Social Studies)

The anthropological approach is the central focus of this study. Laboratories are looked upon with the innocent eye of the traveller in exotic lands, and the societies found in these places are observed with the objective yet compassionate eye of the visitor from a quite other cultural milieu. There are many surprises that await us if we enter a laboratory in this frame of mind... This study is a realistic enterprise, an attempt to truly represent the social order of life in laboratories and institutes of research, just as they are. By bringing the philosophical issues to the surface as matters not of prejudgement but as matters of concern, Karin Knorr-Cetina has developed the first really positive challenge to the philosophy of science since the days of paradigms and internal definitions of meanings. The Manufacture of Knowledge......Page 1 Preface......Page 4 Acknowledgements......Page 6 Contents......Page 7 1.1 Facts and Fabrications......Page 11 1.2 The Constructivist Interpretation I : Nature and the Laboratory......Page 13 1.3 The Constructivist Interpretation II: The "Decision Ladenness" of Fact-Fabrication......Page 15 1.4 The Laboratory: Context of Discovery or Context of Validation?......Page 17 1.5 The Contextuality of Laboratory Construction......Page 19 1.6 Contextual Contingency as a Principle of Change......Page 20 1.7 The Constructivist Interpretation III: Innovation and Selection......Page 21 1.8 Sources of Reconstruction: The Internal and the External......Page 24 1.9 Sensitive and Frigid Methodologies......Page 27 1.10 From the Question Why to the Question How......Page 30 1.11 The Scientist as a Practical Reasoner......Page 31 1.12 The Cognitive and the Practical Reasoner......Page 32 1.13 Data and Presentation......Page 33 Notes......Page 37 2.1 Bringing Space and Time Back In :The Indexical Logic and the Opportunism of Research......Page 43 2.2 Local Idiosyncrasies......Page 47 2.3 Occasioned Selections and the Oscillation of Decision Criteria......Page 50 2.4 The Neglected Research Site: Organisation vs . Laboratory Situation......Page 52 2.5 Variable Rules, and Power......Page 54 2.6 Conclusion......Page 56 Notes......Page 57 3.1 The Metaphor Theory of Innovation......Page 59 3.2 The Scientists' Accounts of Innovation......Page 62 3.3 Analogy Relations and the Opportunistic Logic of Research......Page 67 3.4 The Opportunism and the Conservatism of Analogical Reasoning......Page 69 3.5 Ethnotheories of Innovation, or the Assumptions Behind Accounts of Innovation......Page 71 3.6 A Metaphor- or Analogy-Theory of Failure and Mistake......Page 73 Notes......Page 76 4.1 The Scientific Community as a Unit of Contextual Organisation......Page 78 4.2 Quasi-Economic Models: From Community Gift-Giving to Community Capitalism......Page 80 4.3 The Scientist as an Economic Reasoner, or "Who are the Entrepreneurs?"......Page 84 4.4. The Labour Interpretation......Page 88 4.5 Variable Transscientific Fields......Page 91 4.6 Resource-Relationships......Page 93 4.7 Resource-Relationships: Ultrafragile and Grounded in Conflict......Page 96 4.8 The Transscientific Connection of Research......Page 98 4.9 Indeterminacy and the Transscientific Connection of Research......Page 99 Notes......Page 101 5.1 The "Products" of Research......Page 104 5.2 The Grounding of a Research Effort in the Laboratory......Page 106 5.3 The Grounding of a Research Effort in the Scientific Paper......Page 108 5.4 First and Final Versions: Th"e Dissimulation of literary Intention......Page 111 5.5 The Construction of a Web of Reason......Page 117 5.6 The Management of Relevance......Page 120 5.7 The Story of the Laboratory Continued......Page 122 5.8 The Paper-Version of Method......Page 124 5.9 The Results and Discussion of the Paper......Page 131 5.10 From the First to the Final Version Once Again......Page 133 5.11 The Transformation Function: Are there Rules of Correspondence?......Page 137 5.12 Conclusion : The Process of Conversion and the Idea of an Economy of Change......Page 140 Notes......Page 143 6.1 The Two Sciences......Page 146 6.2 The Universality of Interpretation and Understanding......Page 148 6.3 The Curious Distinction Between Interested Action and Symbolic Action......Page 150 6.4 The Symbolic and the Laboratory......Page 153 6.5 The Feedback Thesis......Page 156 Notes......Page 159 Conclusion......Page 162 Appendix 1......Page 164 Appendix 2......Page 173 References......Page 183 Index of Names......Page 192 Index of Subjects......Page 195 The Manufacture of Knowledge 1 Preface 4 Acknowledgements 6 Contents 7 Chapter 1 11 1.1 Facts and Fabrications 11 1.2 The Constructivist Interpretation I : Nature and the Laboratory 13 1.3 The Constructivist Interpretation II: The "Decision Ladenness" of Fact-Fabrication 15 1.4 The Laboratory: Context of Discovery or Context of Validation? 17 1.5 The Contextuality of Laboratory Construction 19 1.6 Contextual Contingency as a Principle of Change 20 1.7 The Constructivist Interpretation III: Innovation and Selection 21 1.8 Sources of Reconstruction: The Internal and the External 24 1.9 Sensitive and Frigid Methodologies 27 1.10 From the Question Why to the Question How 30 1.11 The Scientist as a Practical Reasoner 31 1.12 The Cognitive and the Practical Reasoner 32 1.13 Data and Presentation 33 Notes 37 Chapter 2 43 2.1 Bringing Space and Time Back In :The Indexical Logic and the Opportunism of Research 43 2.2 Local Idiosyncrasies 47 2.3 Occasioned Selections and the Oscillation of Decision Criteria 50 2.4 The Neglected Research Site: Organisation vs . Laboratory Situation 52 2.5 Variable Rules, and Power 54 2.6 Conclusion 56 Notes 57 Chapter 3 59 3.1 The Metaphor Theory of Innovation 59 3.2 The Scientists' Accounts of Innovation 62 3.3 Analogy Relations and the Opportunistic Logic of Research 67 3.4 The Opportunism and the Conservatism of Analogical Reasoning 69 3.5 Ethnotheories of Innovation, or the Assumptions Behind Accounts of Innovation 71 3.6 A Metaphor- or Analogy-Theory of Failure and Mistake 73 3.7 Conclusion 76 Notes 76 Chapter 4 78 4.1 The Scientific Community as a Unit of Contextual Organisation 78 4.2 Quasi-Economic Models: From Community Gift-Giving to Community Capitalism 80 4.3 The Scientist as an Economic Reasoner, or "Who are the Entrepreneurs?" 84 4.4. The Labour Interpretation 88 4.5 Variable Transscientific Fields 91 4.6 Resource-Relationships 93 4.7 Resource-Relationships: Ultrafragile and Grounded in Conflict 96 4.8 The Transscientific Connection of Research 98 4.9 Indeterminacy and the Transscientific Connection of Research 99 Notes 101 Chapter 5 104 5.1 The "Products" of Research 104 5.2 The Grounding of a Research Effort in the Laboratory 106 5.3 The Grounding of a Research Effort in the Scientific Paper 108 5.4 First and Final Versions: Th"e Dissimulation of literary Intention 111 5.5 The Construction of a Web of Reason 117 5.6 The Management of Relevance 120 5.7 The Story of the Laboratory Continued 122 5.8 The Paper-Version of Method 124 5.9 The Results and Discussion of the Paper 131 5.10 From the First to the Final Version Once Again 133 5.11 The Transformation Function: Are there Rules of Correspondence? 137 5.12 Conclusion : The Process of Conversion and the Idea of an Economy of Change 140 Notes 143 Chapter 6 146 6.1 The Two Sciences 146 6.2 The Universality of Interpretation and Understanding 148 6.3 The Curious Distinction Between Interested Action and Symbolic Action 150 6.4 The Symbolic and the Laboratory 153 6.5 The Feedback Thesis 156 Notes 159 Chapter 7 162 Conclusion 162 Appendix 1 164 Appendix 2 173 References 183 Index of Names 192 Index of Subjects 195 This study is a realist enterprise, an attempt to truly represent the social order of life in laboratories and institutes of research, just as they are. By bringing the philosophical issues to the surface as matters not of prejudgement but as matters of concerns, Karin Knorr-Cetina has developed the first really positive challenge to the philosophy of science since the days of paradigms and internal definitions of meanings. The anthropological approach is the central focus of this study. By Karin D. Knorr-cetina ; Pref. By Rom Harré. Includes Indexes. Bibliography: P. 173-181.