The Strength of Loose Concepts — Boundary Concepts,Federative Experimental Strategies and Disciplinary Growth: The Case of Immunology

Granovetter Mark S. , “The strength of weak ties”, American journal of sociology, lxxviii (1973), 1360–80.

Ibid., 1360 (emphasis in original).

The history of immunology is summed up in two recent books: Silverstein Arthur M. , A history of immunology (San Diego, 1989); Moulin Anne Marie , Le dernier langage de la médecine: L'histoire de l'immunologie de Pasteur au Sida (Paris, 1991). See also Milestones in immunology: A historical exploration (Madison, 1988), ed. by Bibel Debra J. ; Immunology 1930–1980: Essays on the history of immunology (Toronto, 1989), ed. by Mazumdar Pauline M. ,.

Kohler Robert E. , “The enzyme theory and the origins of biochemistry”, Isis, lxiv (1973), 181–96.

Latour Bruno , Les Microbes, guerre et paix (Paris, 1984); English edition, The Pasteurisation of France, trans. by Sheridan Alan Law John (Cambridge, Mass. and London, 1988).

Fleck Ludwik , Genesis and development of a scientific fact, trans. by Bradley F. Trenn T. (Chicago and London, 1979; first published, 1935), 39.

Fleck Ludwik , “Some specific features of the serological way of thinking: A methodological study”, Science in context, ii (1988; first published, 1937), 343–5.

Fleck , Genesis and development of a scientific fact (ref. 6), 99–103.

Elkana Yehuda , “Helmholtz's ‘Kraft’: An illustration of concept in flux”, Historical studies in the physical sciences, ii (1970), 263–98. Elkana quotes H. A. Kramer's statement: “In human thought in general and in physical sciences in particular, the most fruitful concepts are those to which one cannot attribute a concrete meaning.”.

Darden Lindley Maul Nancy , “Interfield theories”, Philosophy of science, xliv (1977), 43–64; Maul Nancy , “Unifying science without reduction”, Studies in history and philosophy of science, viii (1977), 143–60.

Löwy Ilana , “Variances in meaning in discovery accounts: The case of contemporary biology”, Historical studies in the physical and biological sciences, xxi (1990), 87–121.

E.g., Fujimura Joan , “Constructing ‘do-able’ problems in cancer research: Articulating alignment”, Social studies of sciences, xvii (1987), 257–93; Latour Bruno , Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society (Cambridge, Mass., 1987); Cambrosio Alberto Keating Peter , “Going monoclonal: Art, science and magic in the day-to-day use of hybridoma technology”, Social problems, xxxv (1988), 244–60.

Galison Peter , “The trading zone: Coordinating action and belief in modern physics”, Conference at the Institut Henri Poincaré, Paris, 13 December 1991.

A pidgin is a marginal language that arises to fulfil restricted communication needs among people who have no common language and which is native to neither side. Hall Robert A. , Pidgin and Creole languages (Ithaca and London, 1966); Todd Loreto , Pidgins and Creoles (London and Boston, 1974).

A creole language arises when a pidgin becomes the mother tongue of a speech community (see ref. 14).

Ben David Joseph , “Roles and innovations in medicine”, American journal of sociology, lxv (1960), 557–68.

Strauss Anselm , “A social world perspective”, Studies in symbolic interaction, i (1978), 119–28. In the interactionist tradition the term ‘social world’ refers to a specific set of activities, carried out in common with respect to particular subject or area of concern. Gerson Elihu M. , “Scientific work and social words”, Knowledge, creation, diffusion, utilisation, iv (1983), 357–77, p. 359. Cf. also Bucher Rue Strauss Anselm , “Professions in process”, American journal of sociology, lxvi (1961), 325–34. The terms ‘boundary objects’, ‘hedges’ and ‘fuzzy sets’ were employed by linguists to describe the indeterminancy of natural language.

Star and Griesemer studied the construction of a natural science museum, a task that involved close interaction between disparate social groups. Star S. Leigh Griesemer James R. , “Institutional ecology, ‘translations’ and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology”, Social studies of science, xix (1988), 387–420.

The expressions “weakly structured” and “strongly structured” refer to concrete uses of given object or concept. Thus a given concept may be perceived by the relevant communities as a well-defined one, but if in practice it is used in different ways in local contexts, it may be viewed as a “boundary concept” which is loosely defined in the common use. Fleck had already noticed that “items of knowledge” behave in a different way in intracollective and intercollective settings. Fleck, Genesis and development of a scientific fact (ref. 6), 111.

For example Fleck claimed that the “Streptococcus hemolyticus” of a genetically-oriented bacteriologist is incommensurable with the “Streptococcus hemolyticus” of a medically-oriented epidemiologist. Fleck Ludwik , “On the crisis of ‘reality’” (1929), in Cognition and fact: Materials on Ludwik Fleck , ed. by Cohen Robert S. Schnelle Thomas (Dordrecht, 1986), 47–58. One may argue that this bacterium is a “boundary object” composed of a “hard core” — That is, characteristics which define “S. hemolyticus” for both bacteriologists and epidemiologists — And a “fuzzy periphery” — The (variable) criteria for the inclusion of borderline cases in the entity “S. hemolyticus”.

Moulin Anne Marie Löwy Ilana , “La double nature de l'immunologie: L'histoire de la transplantation renale”, Fundamenta scientiae, iv (1983), 201–18.

Moulin Anne Marie , “Text and context in biology: In pursuit of chimera”, in From gene to social context , special issue (ed. by Bieri P. Hrushovsy B. ) of Poetics today, ix, no. 1 (1988), 145–61.

Löwy , “Variances in meaning” (ref. 11).

Moulin, “Text and context in biology” (ref. 22).

Löwy, “Variances in meaning” (ref. 11).

The term ‘new immunology’ was coined by Burnet: Burnet F. Macfarlane , “The immunological recognition of the self”, in Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine (Amsterdam and London, 1964), iii, 689–701.

Granovetter , “The strength of weak ties” (ref. 1).

Metchnikoff Elie , L'immunité dans des maladies infectieuses (Paris, 1901).

Ehrlich Paul , “Experimental researches on specific therapy” (first published, 1907), in Ehrlich P. , Collected papers, ed. by Himmelwelt F. Marquardt M. Dale H. (London, 1957), iii, 118–29.

Kohler , “The enzyme theory and the origins of biochemistry” (ref. 4).

Mazumdar Pauline M. H. , “The antigen-antibody reaction and the physics and chemistry of life”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, xlviii (1974), 1–21.

von Pirquet C. Schick B. , Die Serum-krankheit (Leipzig, 1905).

Portier C. Richet Charles , “De l'action anaphylactique de certain venins”, Comptes rendus de ta Société de Biologie, liv (1902), 170–2.

Richet Charles , “Anaphylaxis”, in Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine (ref. 26), i, 469–90, p. 488.

Richet Charles , L'anaphylaxie (Paris, 1911), 250–1.

Richet , “Anaphylaxis” (ref. 34), 489.

Landsteiner Karl , “Zur Kenntnis der antifermentativen, lytischen und agglutinierenden Wirkungen des Blutserums und der Lymphe”, Zentralblat für Bakteriologie, Parazintenkunde und Infektionskrankheiten, xxvii (1900), 357–62.

Carrel Alexis , “Remote results of the transplantation of the kidneys and the spleen”, Journal of experimental medicine, xii (1910), 146–50 (emphasis in original).

Carrel Alexis , Unpublished research report, 1911, Rockefeller Archives, Tarrytown, N.Y., Alexis Carrel's Papers 450-C252, box 2.

The boundary concept ‘resistance to malignant tumors’ facilitated collaboration between pathologists, immunologists and physicians in the early twentieth century. Growing difficulties in the application of immunological methods to the study of complex physiological and pathological phenomena led to the abandonment of the studies of ‘resistance’ to tumors and of the whole domain of transplantation of normal and malignant tissues. Löwy Ilana , “Biomedical research and constraints of medical practice: James Bumgardner Murphy and the early discovery of the role of lymphocytes in immune reactions”, Bulletin of the history of medicine, lxiii (1989), 356–91.

Silverstein , History of immunology (ref. 3), 196–7; Moulin , Le dernier langage de la médecine (ref. 3), 235–8.

Schöne G. , “Über Transplantationsimmunität”, Münchener medizinische Wochenschrift, lviii (1912), 457–67; Holman E. , “Protein sensitization in iso-skin grafting: Is the latter of practical value?”, Surgery, gynecology and obstetrics, xxxviii (1924), 100–6.

Löwy , “Biomedical research and constraints of medical practice” (ref. 40).

Little Clarence C. , “The genetics of tissue transplantation in mammals”, Journal of cancer research, viii (1924), 75–95.

Hirschfeld Ludwik , Konstitutionsserologie und Blutgruppenforschung (Berlin, 1928); Todd C. , “Cellular individuality in higher animals with specific reference to the individuality of blood corpuscules”, Proceedings of the Royal Society (London), cvi (1930), 20–44.

Silverstein Arthur , “A history of theories of antibody formation”, Cellular immunology, xci (1985), 263–83.

Landsteiner Karl , “Über heterogenetischen Antigen und Hapten: Mitteilung über Antigene”, Biochemische Zeitschrift, cxix (1921), 294–306.

On the hostility of physicians to physico-chemical approaches in the 1920s see e.g., Dubos René , The professor, the institute and DNA (New York, 1965), 42.

Fleck , “Some specific features of the immunological way of thinking” (ref. 7).

E.g., Wells H. G. , Chemical aspects of immunity (New York, 1925); Northop J. H. , “The mechanism of agglutination”, in The newer knowledge of bacteriology and immunology , ed. by Jordan E. O. Falk I. S. (London, 1928), 801–6. Clinical serologists used this argument to enhance the prestige of their specialty.

E.g., Zinsser Hans , Resistance to infectious diseases (fourth edn, New York, 1931), p. ix.

Burnet F. Macfarlane , Changing patterns: An atypical autobiography (Melbourne, 1968), 81–83.

Fenner Frank , “Frank Macfarlane Burnet, 3 September 1899 – 31 August 1985”, Obituary notices of the Fellows of the Royal Society, xxxiii (1987), 101–62.

Burnet , Changing patterns (ref. 52), 70–72.

F. Macfarlane Burnet, with the collaboration of Freeman M. Jackson A. V. Lush D. , The production of antibodies: A review and theoretical discussion (Melbourne, 1941).

Burnet , The production of antibodies (ref. 55), 46.

Burnet F. Macfarlane Fenner Frank , The production of antibodies, 2nd edn (Melbourne, 1949).

Burnet Fenner , The production of antibodies (ref. 57), 86.

Owen R. W. , “Immunogenetic consequences of vascular anastomoses between bovine twins”, Science, cii (1945), 400–1; Burnet Fenner , The production of antibodies (ref. 57), 86.

Medawar Peter B. , “Notes on the problem of skin homografts”, Bulletin of war medicine, iv (1943), 1–4; Medawar Peter B. , “Immunity to homologous grafted skin”, British journal of experimental pathology, xxvii (1946), 15–24.

Jerne Niels K. , “The natural selection theory of antibody formation”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), xli (1955), 849–57; Burnet F. Macfarlane , “A modification of Jerne's theory of antibody production using the concept of clonal selection”, Australian journal of science, xx (1957), 67–68; Talmage David W. , “Allergy and immunology”, Annual review of medicine, viii (1957), 239–40. Both Jerne and Burnet closely followed the latest development at the front line of research concerning protein synthesis thanks to their direct contacts with members of the “phage group” and other leading specialists in this domain. Jerne N. K. , “The natural selection theory of antibody formation”, in Phage and the origins of molecular biology , ed. by Stent Guenter S. Watson James D. (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., 1969), 301–32; Burnet M. , Changing patterns (ref. 52), 81–87.

Mazumdar Pauline M. H. , “Working out of theory”, in Mazumdar (ed.), Immunology 1930–1980 (ref. 3), 1–12.

Mazumdar , “Working out of theory” (ref. 62), 3.

Talmage David W. , “Is theory necessary?”, in Mazumdar (ed.), Immunology 1930–1980 (ref. 3), 67–72.

The experiments that confirmed some of the predictions of Burnet's self marker theory, were published in 1953: Billingham Rupert Brent Lesley Medawar Peter B. , “‘Actively acquired tolerance’ of foreign cells”, Nature, clxxii (1953), 603–6. This publication had immediately a strong impact on physicians: Medawar Peter B. , Memoirs of a thinking radish: An autobiography (Oxford, 1986), 134. The newly-described self-recognition was at the centre of the debates of the international conference, “The relation of immunology to tissue homotransplantation”, organized by the New York Academy of Sciences in February 1954 (Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, lix (1955), 277–466), and continued to be central in debates on transplantation in the 1950s. The loosely defined concepts ‘self-markers’ and ‘tolerance’, both directly derived from the studies by Medawar and his collaborators, played a key role in the development of collaboration between immunologists, haematologists and pioneers of kidney transplantation in the 1950s and 1960s. Löwy Ilana , “The impact of medical practice on biomedical research: The case of human leucocyte antigens studies”, Minerva, xxxv (1987), 171–200.

Michon L. Hamburger J. Oeconomos N. Delinotte P. Richet G. Vayse J. Antoine B. , “Une tentative de transplantation rénale chez l'homme: Aspets médicaux et biologiques”, La presse médicale, lxi (1953), 1419; Merril J. P. Murray J. E. Harrison J. H. Guild W. , “Successful homotransplantation of the human kidney between identical twins”, Journal of the American Medical Association, clx (1956), 277–82.

Gard S. , “Presentation speech”, in Nobel Lectures: Physiology or Medicine (ref. 26), iii, 685–8, p. 687.

Burnet , “The immunological recognition of the self” (ref. 26), 689 (emphasis supplied).

Jerne Niels K. , “Summary: Waiting for the end”, Cold Spring Harbour symposia in quantitative biology, xxxii (1967), 591–603, p. 601.

NIAD Study Group Report, New initiatives in immunology (National Institute of Health Publication no 81–2215; Bethesda, Maryland, 1981).

Löwy , “Biomedical research and the constraints of medical practice” (ref. 40), 384–6.

Swain Donald , “The rise of research empire: NIH 1930 to 1950”, Science, cxxxviii (1962), 1233–7.

Moulin Löwy , “Le double langage de l'immunologie” (ref. 21).

Hors Jacques , “HLA et maladies”, in HLA: Complexe majeur d'histocompatibilité de l'homme, ed. by Dausset Jean et Pla Marika (Paris, 1985), 227–56.

Löwy , “The impact of medical practice on biomedical research” (ref. 65). In the 1970s the boundary concept ‘histocompatibility’ encouraged the collaboration between immunogeneticians, haematologists and transplanters and the development of national and international structures of organ exchange. Löwy, “Variances in meaning in discovery accounts” (ref. 11), 90–98.

Reproduced in Golub E. S. , Immunology: A synthesis (Sutherland, Mass., 1987).

Jerne , “Summary: Waiting for the end” (ref. 69).

Jerne Niels K. , “Towards a network theory of the immune system”, Annales d'immunologie de l'Institut Pasteur, series C, cxxv (1974), 373–89; Jerne Niels K. Roland Jaques Cazenave Pierre-André , “Recurrent idiotypes and internal images”, EMBO journal, i (1982), 243–6.

Root-Bernstein Robert S. , “Do we know the cause(s) of AIDS?”, Perspectives in biology and medicine, xxxiii (1990), 480–500.

Ziegler J. H. Stites D. P. , “Hypothesis: AIDS is an autoimmune disease directed at the immune system and triggered by a lymphotrophic virus”, Clinical immunology and immunopathology, xli (1986), 305–13; Ho D. D. Pomeranz R. J. Kaplan J. C. , “Pathogenesis of infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus”, New England journal of medicine, cccxvii (1987), 278–86; Hoffman G. W. Kion T. A. Grant M. D. , “An idiotypic network model for AIDS immunopathologies”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), lxxxviii (1991), 3060–4; Maddox John , “AIDS research turned upside down”, Nature, cccliii (1991), 297.

Jerne , “Summary: Waiting for the end” (ref. 69); Moulin Anne Marie , “Immunology, old and new: The beginning and the end”, in Mazumdar (ed), Immunology 1930–1980 (ref. 3), 291–8.

Quoted in Goodfield June , Cancer under siege (London, 1974).

Galison Peter , How experiments end (Chicago and London, 1987), 197–212; Amsterdamska Olga , “Stabilizing instability: The controversy over cyclogenic theories of bacterial variation during the interwar period”, Journal of the history of biology, xxiv (1991), 191–222.

Whitley Richard , The intellectual and social organization of sciences (Oxford, 1984), 119–52.

Gusfield Joseph , The culture of public problems: Drinking, driving and the symbolic codes (Chicago, 1981).

Abbott Andrew , The system of professions: An assay on the division of expert labor (Chicago, 1988).