Social Studies of Science
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| Name | Social Studies of Science |
| Field | Science and technology studies |
| Notable people | Robert Merton, Thomas Kuhn, Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway, Michel Foucault |
Social Studies of Science is an interdisciplinary field examining how scientific knowledge, technologies, and expert practices are produced, validated, and embedded within societies. It connects historical, sociological, anthropological, philosophical, and policy-oriented perspectives to analyze institutions, actors, and material artifacts that shape scientific practice. Scholars trace linkages among laboratories, funding agencies, professional organizations, and political events to reveal how scientific facts emerge and circulate.
Introduction
The field draws on foundations laid by figures such as Robert Merton, Thomas Kuhn, Karl Popper, Ludwik Fleck, and Norbert Wiener while engaging contemporary thinkers like Bruno Latour, Donna Haraway, Michel Foucault, and Evelyn Fox Keller. It intersects with institutions and episodes including Royal Society, Max Planck Society, National Institutes of Health, European Research Council, Manhattan Project, Human Genome Project, Chernobyl disaster, and Space Shuttle Challenger disaster to interrogate the social life of scientific facts. The field informs and is informed by policy arenas such as National Science Foundation, World Health Organization, European Commission, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, and advocacy by groups like Greenpeace and Union of Concerned Scientists.
History and Origins
Origins trace to intellectual currents in the early 20th century including work by Émile Durkheim, Max Weber, John Dewey, and George Sarton and to institutional histories of entities like Smithsonian Institution, Royal Society, Académie des Sciences, and Institut Pasteur. Postwar developments involved scholars at Harvard University, University of Chicago, London School of Economics, and California Institute of Technology engaging with episodes such as Atomic Age, Cold War, Sputnik crisis, and Asilomar Conference on Recombinant DNA. Seminal works include The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, The Mertonian Norms, and studies produced at centers like Science and Technology Studies at MIT and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science.
Key Theoretical Approaches
Major approaches include the sociology of knowledge associated with Karl Mannheim and Robert Merton; historical epistemology linked to Ludwik Fleck and Thomas Kuhn; actor-network theory developed by Bruno Latour, Michel Callon, and John Law; feminist critiques from Donna Haraway, Evelyn Fox Keller, and Sandra Harding; and post-structuralist analyses drawing on Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. Other strands engage with political economy informed by Karl Marx and Pierre Bourdieu and with cognitive and laboratory studies linked to researchers at University of California, San Diego, Cornell University, and Columbia University.
Methods and Research Practices
Methodologies combine archival work in repositories like National Archives and Records Administration, British Library, and Bibliothèque nationale de France with ethnography inside sites such as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, CERN, Salk Institute, Roche, and Pfizer laboratories. Researchers apply participant observation, oral history involving figures such as James Watson and Rosalind Franklin, discourse analysis in the style of Michel Foucault, and quantitative bibliometric techniques using databases like Web of Science and Scopus. Comparative studies draw on fieldwork in locations including Tokyo, Beijing, Bangalore, Cape Town, São Paulo, and Berlin.
Major Topics and Debates
Core topics include the social construction of scientific facts debated in response to works like Laboratory Life and controversies exemplified by Climate change debates, Tobacco industry controversies, Thalidomide scandal, and vaccine hesitancy during the 21st century. Debates cover expertise and authority involving peer review, scientific publishing and outlets like Nature (journal), Science (journal), and The Lancet (journal), the ethics of human subjects tied to Nuremberg Code and Declaration of Helsinki, and commercialization issues around Bayh–Dole Act and patent law cases such as Diamond v. Chakrabarty. Other focal points include gender and diversity highlighted by cases at MIT, Stanford University, and University of Oxford and indigenous knowledge interactions in contexts like Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and First Nations communities.
Institutional and Policy Impacts
The field influences policy and governance through advisory roles to organizations such as National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, European Commission, World Health Organization, and national bodies like House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology and United States Department of Energy. It evaluates research assessment regimes including Research Excellence Framework and H-index-driven incentives, studies funding landscapes shaped by DARPA, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, and analyzes regulatory episodes regarding genetically modified organisms and stem cell research adjudicated in forums like European Court of Justice and United States Supreme Court.
Criticisms and Controversies
Critiques target perceived relativism linked to debates with philosophers such as Karl Popper and institutions like Royal Society and scholars accuse some approaches of undermining public trust during controversies like Climategate. Others argue for greater engagement with policy and praxis exemplified by partnerships with World Health Organization and United Nations Environment Programme. Internal disputes appear among proponents associated with actor-network theory and critics grounded in philosophy of science traditions from Imre Lakatos and Paul Feyerabend.