Abstract: Scientific work is heterogeneous, requiring many different actors and viewpoints. It also requires cooperation. The two create tension between divergent viewpoints and the need for generalizable findings. We present a model of how one group of actors managed this tension. It draws on...Read more
Ludwik Fleck uses cases studies in the history of biology and medical science to develop his conception of thought styles and thought collectives, arguing that all knowledge is relative to epistemic communities with historically specific manners of thinking and interacting.Read more
Abstract: The phrase ‘trading zone’ is often used to denote any kind of interdisciplinary partnership in which two or more perspectives are combined
and a new, shared language develops. In this paper we distinguish between different types of trading zone by asking whether the
collaboration...Read more
From the Introduction: "The relationship between ethnography and anthropological method is at the center of these questions raised in the Exchange presented here. On the one hand, the participants consider various questions concerning the status of ethnographic authority, and its relationship to...Read more
ABSTRACT: This paper examines the use of cultural probes as a method for fostering collaboration within groups of diverse experts working on creative projects. Using two case examples, we show that probes—short, oblique, and at times whimsical sets of activity prompts—have boundary object...Read more
Kim Fortun and Todd Cherkasky explicate how they are thinking about "counter-expertise" as "a way of taking responsibility for expert knowledge and status, while questioning the conventional role experts play in framing political choices" (1998, 141).Read more
In this article, Kim Fortun discusses her affiliation with the Bhopal Group for Information and Action and her experiences as an advocate for the Bhopal Gas Affected Working Women's Union. She uses this discussion to develop a theory of advocacy "as a way to expertise, which complicates...Read more