Socio-epistemic analysis of scientific knowledge production in little science research

The processes that drive knowledge production and dissemination in scientific environments are embedded within the social, technical, cultural and epistemic practices of the constituent research communities. This article presents a methodology to unpack specific social and epistemic dimensions of scientific knowledge production using, as a case study, the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing (CENS), a National Science Foundation “little science” research center involved in theoretical and applied work in the field of wireless communication and sensor networks. By analysis of its scholarly record, I construct a social network of coauthorship, linking individuals that have coauthored scholarly artifacts (journal articles and conference papers), and an epistemic network of topic co-occurrence, linking concepts and knowledge constructs in the same scholarly artifacts. This article reports on ongoing work directed at the study of the emergence and evolution of these networks of scientific interaction. I present some preliminary results and introduce a socio-epistemic method for an historical analysis of network co-evolution. I outline a research design to support further investigations of knowledge production in scientific circles.

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The social context of scientific knowledge production and the problem of demarcation

Pragmatics & Cognition ◽

10.1075/pc.14.3.05vol ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 14 (3) ◽

pp. 527-568 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Paolo Volonté

Keyword(s):

Scientific Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Production ◽

Scientific Production ◽

Point Of View ◽

Social Origin ◽

Social Mechanism ◽

Production Of Knowledge ◽

Scientific Knowledge Production ◽

The Social ◽

Demarcation Criteria

In this paper, I wish to face the old problem of demarcation from a new point of view. I aim at pointing out that there are distinction criteria between scientific and non-scientific knowledge. I intend to investigate whether it is possible to define demarcation criteria by studying the social dimension of science. There are social necessities, which force the scientific production of knowledge to distinguish itself from non-scientific production. Science is not what scientists freely decide it should be, but what they are compelled to acknowledge it is. The paper discusses the nature of this constraint, which has a social origin but is also capable to be reflected on the cognitive contents of science. Through a discussion of the theories of Bruno Latour and Pierre Bourdieu, attention is drawn on the cycle of credibility as the crucial social mechanism determining scientific knowledge.

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Resistances to scientific knowledge production of comparative measurements of dropout and completion in European higher education

European Educational Research Journal ◽

10.1177/1474904116667363 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 16 (4) ◽

pp. 386-406 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Carina Carlhed

Keyword(s):

Higher Education ◽

Scientific Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Production ◽

Statistical Reasoning ◽

Scientific Knowledge Production ◽

The Social ◽

Different Types ◽

Limited Basis ◽

The Uk ◽

Student Completion

The article is a critical sociological analysis of current transnational practices on creating comparable measurements of dropout and completion in higher education and the consequences for the conditions of scientific knowledge production on the topic. The analysis revolves around questions of epistemological, methodological and symbolic types and, in particular, how the social processes in the creation and use of different measures offer researchers different positions in the knowledge production. Descriptions of statistics and measurements from statistics agencies in Sweden and the UK and from the OECD, EUROSTAT and Eurydice, as well as policy texts and data collection manuals from European Union bodies, have been compared and analysed. Particular interest is directed towards examples of measures used in Sweden and the UK. The results suggest that available data on student completion offers only a very limited basis for research-driven comparative analysis. It offers also a problematisation of the notions of researchers seen as users or producers of data and different position takings in statistical reasoning in using statistics as for example different types of evidence for policymaking.

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Spaces between

Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies ◽

10.5324/njsts.v7i2.3363 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 7 (2) ◽

pp. 3

Author(s):

Roger A Søraa

Keyword(s):

Scientific Knowledge ◽

Knowledge Production ◽

Science And Technology Studies ◽

Science And Technology ◽

Field Experiences ◽

Technological Innovations ◽

Epistemic Practices ◽

Interest In Science ◽

Technology Studies ◽

Scientific Knowledge Production

There is an increasing interest in Science and Technology Studies (STS), as the field experiences growth with respect to the scope of topics, methods and theories deployed to learn and uncover epistemic practices for scientific knowledge production, technological innovations, users and producers.

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Active Coeliac: Disassembling Gluten and Coeliac Disease

Somatechnics ◽

10.3366/soma.2019.0279 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 9 (2-3) ◽

pp. 188-205

Author(s):

Sofia Varino

Keyword(s):

Coeliac Disease ◽

Knowledge Production ◽

Food Additive ◽

Gluten Free ◽

Biomedical Knowledge ◽

Dietary Practices ◽

Object A ◽

Scientific Knowledge Production ◽

New Materialisms

This article follows the trajectories of gluten in the context of Coeliac disease as a gastrointestinal condition managed by lifelong adherence to a gluten-free diet. Oriented by the concept of gluten as an actant (Latour), I engage in an analysis of gluten as a participant in volatile relations of consumption, contact, and contamination across coeliac eating. I ask questions about biomedical knowledge production in the context of everyday dietary practices alongside two current scientific research projects developing gluten-degrading enzymes and gluten-free wheat crops. Following the new materialisms of theorists like Elizabeth A. Wilson, Jane Bennett, Donna Haraway and Bruno Latour, I approach gluten as an alloy, an impure object, a hybrid assemblage with self-organizing and disorganizing capacity, not entirely peptide chain nor food additive, not only allergen but also the chewy, sticky substance that gives pizza dough its elastic, malleable consistency. Tracing the trajectories of gluten, this article is a case study of the tricky, slippery capacity of matter to participate in processes of scientific knowledge production.

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White Writers, Race Matters

10.1093/oso/9780190687229.001.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Gregory S. Jay

Keyword(s):

Literary History ◽

Historical Analysis ◽

Cultural Work ◽

Cultural Narratives ◽

Literary Forms ◽

The Social ◽

White Writers ◽

American Literary History ◽

Taking Action

White liberal race fiction has been an enduringly popular genre in American literary history. It includes widely read and taught works such as Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird along with period bestsellers now sometimes forgotten. Hollywood regularly adapted them into blockbusters, reinforcing their cultural influence. These novels and films protest slavery, confront stereotypes, dramatize social and legal injustices, engage the political controversies of their time, and try to move readers emotionally toward taking action. The literary forms and arguments of these books derive from the cultural work they intend to do in educating the minds and hearts, and propelling the actions, of those who think they are white—indeed, in making the social construction of that whiteness readable and thus more susceptible of reform. The white writers of these fictions struggle with their own place in systems of oppression and privilege while asking their readers to do the same. The predominance of women among this tradition’s authors leads to exploring how their critiques of gender and race norms often reinforced each other. Each chapter provides a case study combining biography, historical analysis, close reading, and literary theory to map the significance of this genre and its ongoing relevance. This tradition remains vital because every generation must relearn the lessons of antiracism and formulate effective cultural narratives for passing on the intellectual and emotional tools useful in fighting injustice.

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The historical composition of the lexicon as a stylistic factor in a text-oriented culture: a case-study from Modern Hebrew

Language and Literature ◽

10.1177/096394700301200104 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 12 (1) ◽

pp. 57-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Yael Reshef

Keyword(s):

Historical Analysis ◽

Lexical Analysis ◽

Social Functions ◽

The Social ◽

Lexical Structure ◽

Modern Hebrew ◽

Linguistic Characteristic ◽

Lexical Composition ◽

Diachronic Changes

This article studies the relevance of an historical lexical analysis to the stylistic description of Modern Hebrew texts. The examination of the lexical make-up of two distinct genres - administrative language and folksong - reveals a correlation between the social functions of the corpora and their formal characteristics. The administrative corpus reflects the lexical structure of standard Modern Hebrew. The folksong, on the other hand, is influenced by literary and ideological considerations. Consequently, it gives expression to the cultural ties with the traditional Hebrew sources by an abundant use of inherited lexicon. The findings suggest that in text-oriented cultures such as Hebrew, stylistic description can benefit from an historical analysis. Such an analysis responds to an intrinsic socio-linguistic characteristic of the language, and complements the structural stylistic analysis. Following Sarfatti (1990), the lexical analysis is based on distinctions drawn within each lexical item between three elements - root, form and meaning. Such a distinction takes account of diachronic changes in the semantic value of lexical items. It pinpoints factors characterizing the corpora’s lexical composition and enables multi-level distinctions between different types of discourse. As a result, it sheds light on one aspect of genre differentiation in the language.

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The Contribution of Case Study Research in Information Science

10.4018/978-1-6684-3881-7.ch029 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 568-586

Author(s):

Beatrice Ngulube

Keyword(s):

Data Collection ◽

Information Science ◽

Case Study Research ◽

Science Research ◽

Research Strategy ◽

Use Case ◽

Study Research ◽

Multiple Data ◽

The Social

The reputation of case study research has grown as a research strategy for developing theories and as a method for investigating and understanding world complex issues. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate how the case study research can add value to a research project. Case study research, although becoming increasingly popular is not adequately utilised in information science research. The chapter draws on the literature on case study research in various fields and uses examples to inform research in information science. Case study research have been used across a number of disciplines, particularly, in the social sciences, education and business to address real world problems. Many researchers tend to use case study research because of the numerous advantages it offers. For instance, the employment of multiple data collection instruments maximises the depth of information, which in turn increases transferability of the findings. Additionally, the use of multiple cases and multiple data collection instruments make generalisation easy and valid. Maximising generalisability of findings is the ultimate goal of research.

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