Button2024

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Button2024
BibType ARTICLE
Key Button2024
Author(s) Graham Button
Title A tale of two laboratories
Editor(s)
Tag(s) EMCA, Science and technology studies, Michael Lynch, Laboratory studies
Publisher
Year 2024
Language English
City
Month
Journal Ethnographic Studies
Volume 20
Number
Pages 33–45
URL Link
DOI 10.26034/lu.ethns.2024.6911
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title
Chapter

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Abstract

Lynch is highly regarded in SSST for his studies of scientific practice and is recognised as making original contributions that have developed and evolved the discipline. However, what may be less understood is that the ethnomethodological studies he has undertaken implicitly bring into question predominate epistemological orientations in SSST. A case in point, drawn from the formative years of SSST, is the con-trasting studies of scientific laboratories conducted by Lynch and by Latour and Woolgar. These studies are often run together as equivalent ground-breaking studies of the social organisation of the scientific laboratory that powerfully demonstrate for SSST an ethnographic approach to the study of science and technology. However, what is less observed is the difference between Lynch’s ethnomethodological approach and the social constructionist approach of Latour and Woolgar’s ethnography. This difference has significant epistemological and methodological consequences for SSST in as much as ethnomethodological investigations can compromise the constructionist tendency displayed in its formative years and which is still very much in evidence today, though in different guises to its original manifestation. The manner in which Lynch articulates his laboratory study will, thus, be shown to call into question many of the now commonly accepted epistemological underpinnings of Latour and Woolgar’s study. This, and the distinctive ethnomethodology of Lynch’s study will be drawn out through a point-by-point comparison of the two examinations and lessons relevant for SSST today will be drawn.

Notes