The Local Configuration of New Research Fields: On Regional and National Diversity

246 Pages·4.55 MB·English

by  Martina Merz, Philippe Sormani (eds.)

Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook 29
Martina Merz
Philippe Sormani Editors
The Local
Confi guration
of New
Research Fields
On Regional and National Diversity
Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook
Volume 29
Managing Editor
Peter Weingart, Universität Bielefeld, Germany
Editorial Board
Yaron Ezrahi, The Israel Democracy Institute, Jerusalem, Israel
Ulrike Felt, University of Vienna, Austria
Michael Hagner, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland
Stephen H. Hilgartner, Cornell University, Ithaca, U.S.A.
Sheila Jasanoff, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.
Sabine Maasen, Technical University München, Germany
Everett Mendelsohn, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A.
Helga Nowotny, European Research Council, Bruxelles/Vienna
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, Max-Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte, Berlin,
Germany
Terry Shinn, GEMAS Maison des Sciences de l’Homme, Paris, France
Richard D. Whitley, Manchester Business School, University of Manchester,
United Kingdom
Björn Wittrock, SCASSS, Uppsala, Sweden
More information about this series at h ttp://www.springer.com/series/6566
Martina Merz (cid:129) Philippe Sormani
Editors
The Local Confi guration
of New Research Fields
On Regional and National Diversity
Editors
Martina Merz Philippe Sormani
Institute of Science Communication Istituto Svizzero di Roma
and Higher Education Research Rome , Italy
Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt
Vienna , Austria
ISSN 0167-2320 ISSN 2215-1796 (electronic)
Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook
ISBN 978-3-319-22682-8 ISBN 978-3-319-22683-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-22683-5
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015954658
Springer Cham Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016
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Contents
1 Configuring New Research Fields: How Policy,
Place, and Organization Are Made to Matter ...................................... 1
Martina Merz and Philippe Sormani
Part I Policy: Nationalizing Science
2 Hidden in Plain Sight: The Impact of Generic
Governance on the Emergence of Research Fields .............................. 25
Jochen Gläser , Grit Laudel , and Eric Lettkemann
3 Building Multidisciplinary Research Fields:
The Cases of Materials Science, Nanotechnology
and Synthetic Biology ............................................................................. 45
Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent
4 Placing a New Science: Exploring Spatial
and Temporal Configurations of Synthetic Biology ............................. 61
Morgan Meyer and Susan Molyneux-Hodgson
Part II Place: Mobilizing Regions
5 The Local Configuration of a Science and Innovation
Policy: A City in the Nanoworld ............................................................ 81
Dominique Vinck
6 The Local Articulation of Contextual Resources:
From Metallic Glasses to Nanoscale Research ..................................... 99
Martina Merz and Peter Biniok
7 Nanodistricts: Between Global Nanotechnology
Promises and Local Cluster Dynamics.................................................. 117
Douglas K. R. Robinson , Arie Rip , and Aurélie Delemarle
v
vi Contents
Part III Organization: Managing Tensions
8 Epistemic Politics at Work: National Policy,
an Upstate New York Synchrotron,
and the Rise of Protein Crystallography ............................................... 137
Park Doing
9 Ecology Reconfigured: Organizational Innovation,
Group Dynamics and Scientific Change ............................................... 153
Edward J. Hackett and John N. Parker
10 Co-producing Social Problems and Scientific Knowledge.
Chagas Disease and the Dynamics of Research Fields
in Latin America ..................................................................................... 173
Pablo Kreimer
Part IV Mobility: Changing Contexts
11 Patterns of the International and the National, the Global
and the Local in the History of Molecular Biology .............................. 193
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger
12 Recasting the Local and the Global: The Three Lives of Protein
Sequencing in Spanish Biomedical Research (1967–1995) .................. 205
Miguel García-Sancho
13 Practicing Innovation: Mobile Nano-training,
Emerging Tensions, and Prospective Arrangements ............................ 229
Philippe Sormani
Contributors
Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent CETCOPRA, UFR de philosophie , Université
Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne , Paris Cedex 05 , France
Peter Biniok Faculty of Health, Safety, Society , Furtwangen University ,
Furtwangen , Germany
Aurélie Delemarle Université Paris Est, IFRIS, Ecole des Ponts ParisTech , Marne-
la- Vallée , France
Park Doing B ovay Program in History and Ethics of Engineering, C ornell
University , Brooktondale , NY , USA
Miguel García-Sancho D epartment of Science, Technology and Innovation
Studies , University of Edinburgh , Edinburgh , UK
Jochen Gläser Center for Technology and Society, HBS 1, Technische Universität
Berlin , Berlin , Germany
Edward J. Hackett S chool of Human Evolution & Social Change, A rizona State
University , Tempe , AZ , USA
Pablo Kreimer CONICET (National Council for Scientifi c & Technological
Research), Center “Science, Technology & Society”, Maimonides University,
Buenos Aires , Argentina
Grit Laudel Department of Sociology, FH 9-1 , Technische Universität Berlin ,
Berlin , Germany
Eric Lettkemann Department of Sociology, FH 9-1 , Technische Universität
Berlin , Berlin , Germany
Martina Merz Institute of Science Communication and Higher Education
Research , Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt , Vienna , Austria
C entre of Excellence in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences (TINT), U niversity of
Helsinki , H elsinki , Finland
vii
viii Contributors
Morgan Meyer Agro ParisTech (UFR Sociologies) and INRA (SenS) , Paris ,
France
Susan Molyneux-Hodgson Department of Sociological Studies , University of
Sheffi eld , Sheffi eld , UK
John N. Parker Barrett, The Honors College , Arizona State University , Tempe ,
AZ , USA
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger M ax Planck Institute for the History of Science, B erlin,
Germany
Arie Rip Science, Technology, and Policy Studies (STePS) , University of Twente ,
Enschede , The Netherlands
Douglas K. R. Robinson Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée, IFRIS-LATTS,
ESIEE , Marne-la-Vallée , France
Philippe Sormani Istituto Svizzero di Roma , Rome , Italy
Department of Science and Technology Studies , University of Vienna , Vienna ,
Austria
Dominique Vinck Faculté de Sciences Sociales et Politiques, Institut des Sciences
Sociales, Quartier UNIL-Mouline , Université de Lausanne , Lausanne , Switzerland
Chapter 1
Confi guring New Research Fields: How Policy,
Place, and Organization Are Made to Matter
Martina Merz and Philippe Sormani
1.1 Introduction
Contemporary science is typically conceived as an international endeavor. Especially
the natural and technical sciences are seen as internationally constituted with their
adoption of English as a lingua franca as well as widespread cooperation and mobil-
ity of researchers across national borders and continents. Such an international per-
spective on science, however, should not neglect that the confi guration of individual
research fi elds may vary considerably between locations, regions, and national con-
texts. Variation is particularly noticeable in the case of research fi elds in their nascent
and early stages such as current nanotechnology, synthetic biology, and the neurosci-
ences. It is this locally specifi c character of new research fi elds and how they come
into being that the present volume and its contributions move into the spotlight.
T he adopted research focus opens up a wide range of questions that are of scien-
tifi c interest and of a more general societal relevance. A few examples may be
instructive for illustration. National science policy agencies are routinely devising
and implementing funding instruments with the explicit aim of fostering selected
research areas regionally and nationally. How the interaction of these forms of
external support with local conditions plays out in specifi c cases, in which sense and
M. Merz (*)
Institute of Science Communication and Higher Education Research ,
Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt , Schottenfeldgasse 29 , A-1070 Vienna , Austria
Centre of Excellence in the Philosophy of the Social Sciences (TINT) ,
University of Helsinki , 00014 Helsinki , Finland
e-mail: [email protected]
P. Sormani
Istituto Svizzero di Roma , 00187 Rome , Italy
Department of Science and Technology Studies , University of Vienna ,
A-1070 Vienna , Austria
e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016 1
M. Merz, P. Sormani (eds.), The Local Confi guration of New Research Fields,
Sociology of the Sciences Yearbook 29, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-22683-5_1