Bruno Latour & Steve Woolgar - Laboratory Life ... - Pedro P. Ferreira

For our purposes, an important aspect of the departure from earlier work stems from thecooperation in producing this report between an ex-member of a radio astronomy researchgroup and a sociologist. Such cooperation would seem a sensible prerequisite for all outsiders'attempts to grapple seriously with the technical details of science. However, this cooperationis not without its own specific problems.Mulkay (1974) argues that the sociological study of science requires a close examination ofits technical culture and hence the active cooperation of technically competent participants.He also notes that because outsiders are seldom interested in technical culture and are usuallytechnically incompetent, the accounts given them by participants must be treated withconsiderable caution. Scientists confronted by an audience of outsiders appear to convey adefinite confusion in their accounts between scientific and historical accuracy. Therelationship between scientist and outsider is highlighted by Mulkay's remarks on interviewsvariously conducted by ex-participant, sociologist and both together. Rapport can be quicklyestablished between ex-participant and interviewer if the discussion concerns technical issuessimilar to those routinely discussed by the interviewee as part of his day-to-day activity.Discussion of more sociological issues was generally left until later in the interview and,especially where both ex-participant and sociologist were present, this exacerbated theinterviewee's perception of the sociologist as an outsider. The interviewee assumed thesociologist to be qualified in areas of discussion which did not directly bear upon the technicalcontent of his science.These observations of difficulties experienced in the course of interaction with intervieweesfurther support the idea that scientists themselves work with a very definite distinctionbetween "social" and "technical." The same distinction can provide a problem for observers((27))in that it raises the question of whether or not an equitable balance has been reached betweenthe two sides of the dichotomy. This question remains, despite affirmations that "technicaland social issues are intimately linked" (Mulkay, 1974: 114).We should like to argue that it is not necessary to attach particular significance to theachievement of a "correct" balance between "social" and "intellectual" factors. This is for twomain reasons. Firstly, as already mentioned, the distinction between "social" and "technical"factors is a resource drawn upon routinely by working scientists. Our intention is tounderstand how this distinction features in the activities of scientists, rather than todemonstrate that emphasis on one or the other side of the duality is more appropriate for ourunderstanding of science. Secondly, our interest in the details of scientific activity cuts acrossthe distinction between "social" and "technical" factors. We want to pay attention to"technical" issues in the sense that the use by scientists of "technical" and "intellectual"terminology is clearly an important feature of their activity. But we regard the use of such