Scientific Practice as Ordinary Action:
An International Workshop on Scientists at Work

University of Fribourg, Switzerland
Department of Social Sciences,
22/23 March 2007

Organised in cooperation with the Research Committee ‘Interpretive Sociologies’ of the Swiss Sociological Association

In the 1970s a number of social scientists aimed to demystify the idea of a ‘scientific method’ and to undermine the idea that there is a radical discontinuity between scientific and everyday practical reasoning. A strategic role for this project were anthropological and ethnographic studies of scientists involved in investigative work and the production of new knowledge.

Although these early ‘laboratory studies’ were highly influential in demonstrating that scientific work is also a social practice, not many researchers attempted to exhibit what may be distinctive about different scientific practices. In fact, as M. Lynch in his review of the development of science studies (Scientific Practice and Ordinary Action, CUP, 1993) notes, most social scientists very quickly left the study of day-to-day investigative work behind and moved on to other, possibly wider or broader, issues of scientific practice. As a consequence, observational studies of scientists at work are nowadays less prominent in social studies of science.

This workshop aims to discuss the present state and prospective of detailed ethnographies of scientific practice. The aim is to bring together researchers who have conducted recent observational studies on the ordinary, interactional, and practical aspects of scientific work, and to discuss the potential benefits of such studies.

The local organisers are Alain Bovet (University of Fribourg), Esther Gonzalez Martinez (University of Fribourg) and Philippe Sormani (University of Lausanne).

For further inquiries please contact scientificpractice@unifr.ch