Gender Stratification and E-Science

Can the internet improve the lot of women in the developing world? This study investigates the degree to which the internet affects the constraints on women pursuing scientific careers. We address this question in the context of the scientific community of Kerala, India, developing a “circumvention” argument that fundamentally implicates information and communication technologies in shaping gender roles. We begin by reviewing two main constraints identified in prior research (educational and research localism) that increase the likelihood of restricted professional networks. Next, we examine the extent to which women scientists have gained access to e-science technologies. With evidence of increased access, we argue that the presence of connected computers in the home has increased consciousness of the importance of international contacts. We conclude by proposing that internet connectivity is helping women scientists to circumvent, but not yet undermine, the patrifocal social structure that reduces social capital and impedes career development.

Challenges for Research and Practice in Distributed, Interdisciplinary Collaboration

As private sector and government research increasingly depends on the use of distributed, interdisciplinary and collaborative teams, particularly in scientific endeavors, we are faced also with an increased need to understand how to work in and study such teams. While much attention has been paid to issues of knowledge transfer, the impact of many other consequences of distribution—disparate disciplines, institutions, career paths, time zones and technologies—have been understudied and underestimated. In this chapter, we describe how distributed, interdisciplinary work puts pressure on existing disciplinary, institutional and personal practices—many of which are second nature to team members, and thus easily overlooked. Reflecting on our own and others’ studies of such teams, and our group’s experiences as a distributed, interdisciplinary and collaborative unit, we describe some key challenges facing such teams, including issues relating to working and learning together as experts, defining and crossing boundaries, managing external relations and working with and through technologies.

Cyberinfrastructure for Next Generation Scholarly Publishing

This chapter deals with the future of scholarly publications as a key element of the knowledge production process of science and research. Publications are both at the input and the output side of knowledge creation and an important means of communication among scientists. In the age of cyberscience, or e-science, the publishing system is changing rapidly and we expect more fundamental changes to come as soon as most scholarly publishing has gone online and researchers have started to explore the new opportunities. A new kind of infrastructure is emerging that will add new actors to the traditional ones and potentially adds new functions and mechanisms. The chapter outlines the status quo and new technological as well as organizational options for scholarly publishing and develops a scenario of the next generation academic publishing system. It concludes with practical recommendations for designing the scholarly e-publishing cyberinfrastructure of the future.

Interest in Production

The chapter locates the organization of the technology-bearing labor process as an important object of STS/ e-science research. Prospective e-science texts, so central to the pursuit of innovative technologies, construct images of specific technical product outcomes that could justify future investment; such products in turn imply specific labor contributions. To study the production of IT for epistemic practice is to go beyond an inquiry of IT use and design practices, and to consider decisions that get made about how the skill, commitment, performance and product demand of scientists could be coordinated and stabilized. In bringing these considerations to the fore, the chapter presents findings from a study about a particular e-science infrastructure production project—the U.S. National Computational Science Alliance—at the turn of the 21st century. The chapter illustrates the organizational dynamics in this case that were bound up with the garnering of interest and commitment of scientists who were funded to build interdisciplinary computational media.

From the "Analogue Divide" to the "Hybrid Divide"

This chapter investigates whether the internet has improved information access for scientists who did not participate fully in the transfer of information in pre-internet times. Several empirical analyses over the last decade have nurtured the hope that the internet had this effect. We argue that these findings were mostly due to the low level of dissemination of the internet in the early 90s. Based on a large European data set, we show that internet use is consistently higher for male, highly recognized and senior researchers. This suggests that the internet has become the dominant means of communication in science—to such an extent that any scientist, regardless of whether they are established or not, has to use the available internet tools in order to communicate effectively. The previous “analogue divide” of information access has become a “hybrid divide” including the analogue and the digital communication media.

Imagining E-Science beyond Computation

This chapter problematizes the relation between the varied modes of knowledge production in the sciences and humanities, and the assumptions underlying the design of current e-science initiatives. Using the notion of “epistemic culture” to analyze various areas of scientific research practices, we show that current conceptions of e-science are firmly rooted in, and shaped by, computer science. This specificity limits the circulation of e-science approaches in other fields. We illustrate this using the case of women’s studies, a contrasting epistemic culture. A view of e-science through the analytic lens of epistemic cultures therefore illustrates the limitations of e-science and its potential to be reinvented.

Computerization Movements and Scientific Disciplines

This chapter examines some of the factors which help to create a momentum for developing new infrastructures for scientific research. Specifically it discusses the usefulness of the “computerization movement” perspective for understanding how innovations in scientific practice catch on and to what effect, arguing that we need to understand the role that wider cultural perceptions about the potential of new technologies play in shaping high level policy and day-to-day practice in science. A case study to develop this point is drawn from one scientific discipline, biological systematics. Examination of a recent policy document suggests that a computerization movement is in progress in this discipline, accompanied by a variety of strategic responses. It can be seen that a computerization movement in science can not only stimulate particular forms of technical activity, but also provide the occasion for focused discussions on the directions, goals and audiences for a discipline.

On Web Structure and Digital Knowledge Bases

This chapter analyses the web as a complex system of interactions bridging online and offline communities in open science in order to discuss the transformation of communication and practices within scientific communities. It addresses the problem of mapping the structural linkages of research networks on the internet for purposes of identifying digital knowledge bases on electronic networks. Traditional (nonelectronic) research networks are likely to have a digital representation (web presence), whose boundaries and characteristics require a closer investigation. It is of special concern here to identify particular subsets of these digital networks whose properties are related to non-digital collaboration structures. Empirical evidence for electronic connectivity on the internet is discussed from a European Language and Speech Network, constituted by 141 research groups—the ELSnet network. We explore the possibility of identifying particularly intensive “Digital Knowledge Bases” on these electronic networks.

Coordinatiion and Crontrol of Research Practice across Scientific Fields

This chapter speaks to the heterogeneity of research practices in science. It explores how cultural differences within and across disciplines shape the appropriation of e-science tools and infrastructures. Becher’s (2001) anthropological perspective on academic disciplines and Whitley’s (2000) organizational theory of scientific fields are used as a theoretical framework. The argument focuses on how differentials in the degree of interdependence between scientists and the level of uncertainty around research problems, objects, techniques and results affect the integration and coordination of work organization. The resulting cultural configuration has implications for mechanisms of control and consensus around the adoption of new technology. The chapter also highlights how appropriation can in turn shape the work organization and research practices of scientific communities.

Virtual Witnessing in a Virtual Age

Despite a substantial unfolding investment in Grid technologies (for the development of cyberinfrastructures or e-science), little is known about how, why and by whom these new technologies are being adopted or will be taken up. This chapter argues for the importance of addressing these questions from an STS (science and technology studies) perspective, which develops and maintains a working scepticism with respect to the claims and attributions of scientific and technical capacity. We identify three interconnected topics with particular salience for Grid technologies: data, networks, and accountability. The chapter provides an illustration of howthese topics might be approached from an STS perspective, by revisiting the idea of “virtual witnessing”—a key idea in understanding the early emergence of criteria of adequacy in experiments and demonstrations at the birth of modern science—and by drawing upon preliminary interviews with prospective scientist users of Grid technologies. The chapter concludes that, against the temptation to represent the effects of new technologies on the growth of scientific knowledge as straightforward and determinate, e-scientists are immersed in structures of interlocking accountabilities which leave the effects uncertain.