The Spaces of Knowledge Production
Introduction
The last thirty years has seen the emergence of a large and sustained literature on the different spaces where scientific and other forms of expert knowledges are produced. In many ways, this focus on the sites of knowledge production is the best known dimension to ‘the geographies of science’. In looking at the way scientific knowledge is made and sustained through detailed practical activity, the laboratory or research station is often the starting point, as a space that is seen as removed from wider social entanglements, and thus able to combine new ideas, materials, technologies and other actors in unexpected and often powerful ways. There is now a multitude of accounts, often ethnographic, which explore the nature of different scientific sites, including commercial and public laboratories, field sites, professional bodies and institutions, museums and more. Some of these were mentioned in the historical section, and more are listed below. As Thrift et al observed “the study of science as a social construction has been pursued through a peculiarly spatial imaginary, which always attaches insight to the site. The locales in which scientific knowledge are produced are not seen as passive backdrops, but as vital links in the chain of production, validation and dissemination” (Thrift et al, 1995: 2).
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The Papers
Knorr-Cetina, K. (1999) ‘What is a Laboratory?’, In K. Knorr-Cetina, Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press): 26-45.
Latour, B. (1999) ‘Circulating Reference: Sampling Soil in the Amazon Forest’, In B. Latour, Pandora’s Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies (Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press): Pages 24-79
Massey, D. (1995) ‘Masculinity, Dualisms and High Technology’, Transactions of the Institution of British Geographers 20(4): 487-499.
Thorpe, C. (2004) ‘Against Time: Scheduling, Momentum and Moral Order at Wartime Los Alamos’, Journal of Historical Sociology 17(1): 31-55.
Greenhough, B. (2006) ‘Tales of an Island-Laboratory: Defining the Field in Geography and Science Studies’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 31(2): 224-237.
Doubleday, R. (2007) ‘Organizing Accountability: Co-Production of Technoscientific and Social Worlds in a Nanoscience Laboratory’, Area 39(2): 166-175.