Showing papers by "Trevor Pinch published in 1984"
TL;DR: The need for an integrated social constructivist approach towards the study of science and technology is outlined in this article, where both scientific facts and technological artefacts are to be understood as social constructs.
Abstract: The need for an integrated social constructivist approach towards the study of science and technology is outlined. Within such a programme both scientific facts and technological artefacts are to be understood as social constructs. Literature on the sociology of science, the science-technology relationship, and technology studies is reviewed. The empirical programme of relativism within the sociology of scientific knowledge and a recent study of the social construction of technological artefacts are combined to produce the new approach. The concepts of `interpretative flexibility' and `closure mechanism', and the notion of `social group' are developed and illustrated by reference to a study of solar physics and a study of the development of the bicycle. The paper concludes by setting out some of the terrain to be explored in future studies.
2,707 citations
TL;DR: The work of the "Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Claims of the Paranormal" and its journal is analyzed in this article, showing that the Committee sometimes presents itself as revealing the results of its own experiments, and sometimes uses its journal to deconstruct others' work.
Abstract: The scientific literature can be used to construct facts or to deconstruct them. The formal journals construct by presenting maximally `demodalized' accounts of experiment. The more popular journals are licensed to present more than this, but usually, where they do provide contingent details of scientists' work, these are details of life away from the laboratory bench. Sometimes, popular journals use their license to present contingent details of work at the laboratory bench, and this has a deconstructing effect on the scientific results presented. This analysis emerges from a consideration of the role of the literature from an active `construction of scientific knowledge' perspective. The work of the `Committee for the Scientific Investigation of the Claims of the Paranormal' and its journal are then analyzed with these themes in mind. The Committee sometimes presents itself as revealing the results of its own experiments, and sometimes uses its journal to deconstruct others' work. The cases of `Remote Viewing' and the astrological `Mars Effect' are discussed. The analysis bears out the `active' view as regards the scientific literature. Also, members of the Committee are seen to take up the active view as their experience of controversial science grows.
45 citations