Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #127880 in Books
• Published on: 1986-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 296 pages

Review
The pioneering 'laboratory study' in the sociology of scientific knowledge. . . . The first and, deservedly, the most influential book-length account of day-to-day work in a single laboratory setting.
(ISIS )

Customer Reviews

What happens in science
"Laboratory Life" was my introduction to the world of Science Studies, and brought about a revolution in the way I thought. I had just finished a spell of 4 years working as a humble computing assistant in a team of epidemiologists investigating the causes of heart disease. The relationships between doctors, nurses and statisticians was almost as fascinating as the results of the study itself. I began to wonder how it could have happened that knowledge about disease aetiology (causation) ever advanced at all, given the amount of time and energy that actually went into avoiding various kinds of work that different groups regarded as beneath their dignity. The statisticians refused to do almost everything, from programming their own computers to helping out with the medical equipment (even when one of the nurses broke her hand). This was because the doctors never did any of these things, and doing them might therefore have constituted a loss of face in the constant battle for status. I could go on (I actually found the whole experience traumatic). But reading "Laboratory Life" was like joining a consciousness raising group, or doing a psychoanalysis! It first of all showed that this kind of thing goes on in every "laboratory". And then, even better, it made sense of it all by situating "science" as just another social activity like any other. Only difference is that science has been so much more successful in presenting itself as an activity that is precisely free of such considerations of power, status and money. So it had not just been me who expected people engaged in science to behave any differently to, let's say, people working in fashion or the media. The scientist is following a career. To set this in action, she must do at least one clever thing, to prove that she can. This then becomes her 'career capital'. The trust that is placed in her can then be 'invested'. And a clever way to do that is to show that the claims of the powerful and rich are justified on 'objective, scientific' grounds. This is vastly oversimplified summary of the message that at least this reader took from this path breaking book, and from some of the other brilliant work by both the authors that followed. But if you want an account of science that really makes you look at it in a different way (and is also very pleasant to read) this is it.