Social Studies of Science

Studies of the creation of networks in science have rarely focused on the role of research materials in establishing relations between actors. This paper considers the question of how scientists' changing needs for research materials in the study of sex hormones, which emerged as a new field of the life sciences at the turn of the century, shaped both the character of the relations between the actors in endocrinological research, and the strategic position of each actor. The accessibility of research materials not only shaped the social organization, but also affected the cognitive development, of sex endocrinology. In this process, gender bias in science was reinforced and metamorphosed.

The interaction of cognitive and interpersonal factors in research groups is discussed in relation to the two phases of the research process — a conceptualization phase, and a programme phase. During the conceptualization phase, which is marked by a high degree of uncertainty, there exists a close connection between cognitive and interpersonal factors. As the research situation becomes concretized and more determined, a distinction emerges between cognitive and interpersonal factors. This study shows that during the conceptualization phase, both the assessment of the concept and the interpersonal relations between those involved are intimately coupled with the personality of the concept's originator. In contrast, the programme phase is characterized by a distinction between an assessment of the programme, on the one hand, and of the originator, on the other. The heart of the programme is assessed continuously over a longer period of time. Unity in assessment and reliability constitute primary evaluation criteria. Cognitive patterning and social relations are symmetric.

Over the half century to 1940, in England and Wales, university education virtually replaced apprenticeship as the élite entry into professional engineering. Although some employers scorned `college men', other firms, both large and small, welcomed the novel technical skills graduates offered. These employers had the power to influence university teaching through local organizations and the national professional engineering institutions. The early curriculum was based on abstract engineering science, to which less-established colleges added teaching more closely related to contemporary industrial practice. The 1920s saw attempts to introduce management studies into engineering curricula, although these were not greatly successful. By the late 1930s, a powerful alliance of employers and academics sought to raise the prestige of engineering by focusing courses on practice in engineering science, leaving management to be taught in firms and through graduate courses. This suggestion won the support of leading employers, and became the basis for the growth of `scientific' engineering after 1945.

I argue that there remains a significant place in the sociology of science for epistemologically couched accounts. By examining `strong programme' work, particularly Andrew Pickering's history of HEP, I show how the decidedly social aspects accentuated in sociological accounts typically have parallel epistemic aspects. The treatment of such aspects as explanatory factors often complements decidedly sociological accounts. This view is defended against the objection that epistemic norms or values are really of only secondary importance in comparison with social practice, perhaps only epiphenomenal. Epistemic values can be understood in a way that is compatible with an appreciation of the importance of practice. The place for epistemologically couched accounts is also defended by showing that generally telling objections to rationalizing explanation as it is commonly understood can be avoided in a superior, fully naturalist, understanding of such explanation.

Virtually all studies on scientific productivity and gender find that men publish more than women. Several investigations indicate that women with children are more productive than childless women, which in turn has been the basis for claiming that women's lower productivity cannot be due to maternal responsibilities. This Note suggests that comparisons between women with children, and those without, can be misleading. When children's age is introduced as a variable, child care turns out to be a critical factor for productivity. While women with children less than ten years of age are considerably less productive than their male counterparts, women with all their children older than this are as productive as men in the same family situation and academic position.