ethnography

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Ethnography of science, how practice produces reality
DRAFT 1159019909

//Laboratory life//, first published in 1979 (see Latour & Woolgar, 1986) was, according to John Law one of just two or three books which created a new field, namely the "ethnography of science," (Law 2004, p. 18). The ethnography of science explores the issue of how scientific knowledge is produced (Law 2004, p. 13). Law concludes that the production of scientific knowledge is messy, it is contextual (see context), it is social, and it involves notions of practice, acts of inscription and creation of material artefacts (see artefacts).

The ethnography of "knowledge practice" lets us see that creation and sharing of is knowledge is messy (Law, 2004). Law argues > the "tribe of scientists" (Latour & Woogar, 1986, p. 17), is not that different from any other tribe. Scientists have a culture. They have beliefs. They have practices. ... somehow or other out of their work, their practices and their beliefs, [worries and gossip], they produce knowledge, scientific knowledge, accounts of reality. So how do they do this? How to they make knowledge. (Law 2004, p. 19)

These questions are essential to the intent behind this research of mine. How do we begin to understand the role of culture, beliefs, practice and gossip in producing knowledge within communities of scientists, army commanders, Ph.D students, blacksmiths, flute makers, or users of so called social tagging systems?

Further research
What does the literature from the ethnography of science have to offer studies of tagging in databases on the Web? Perhaps this is question for further research.

References & further reading
Law, J. (2004). //After method: Mess in social science research// (1st ed.). London; New York: Routledge.

Latour, B., & Woolgar, S. (1986). //Laboratory life: The construction of scientific facts//. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Pinch, T.J., & Bijker, W.E. (1984). The social construction of facts and artefacts: Or how the sociology of science and the sociology of technology might benefit each other. //Social Studies of Science, 14//(3), pp. 399-441.