This article explores testing as research site in the sociology of technology. A fully
generalizable analysis is offered of testing in terms of a notion of projection. Prospective,
current, and retrospective testing are identified The article is illustrated with examples
of testing a clinical budgeting system in the United Kingdom National Health Service
and the testing of the O-rings on the space shuttle Challenger. Lastly, the theme of
"testing the user" is developed Some comments are offered on the pervasiveness of
testing in society at large.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Ashmore, M., M. Mulkay, and T. Pinch.1989. Health and efficiency: A sociology of health economicsMilton Keynes: Open University Press.
2.
Barnes, B., and D. Edge.1983. Science in context. Cambridge : MIT Press.
3.
Bijker, W., T. S. Hughes, and T. J. Pinch, eds. 1987. The social construction of technological systems: New directions in the sociology and history of technology.Cambridge: MIT Press.
4.
Bimber, B.1990. Karl Marx and the three faces of technological determinism . Social Studies of Science20:333-51.
5.
Bugos, G.1989. Program management and the manufacture of certainty in the 1950s. Paper presented to SHOT, Sacramento, 13 October.
6.
Collins, H.M.1975. The seven sexes: A study in the sociology of a phenomenon, or the replication of experiments in physics. Sociology9:205-24.
7.
—, ed. 1981. Knowledge and controversy: Studies of modern natural science.Special issue of Social Studies of Science 11.
8.
—. 1985. Changing order. London: Sage.
9.
—. 1990. Artificial experts. Cambridge : MIT Press.
10.
Collins, H.M., and T. J. Pinch.1982. Frames of meaning: The social construction of extraordinary science. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
11.
Constant, E.W.1980. The origins of the turbojet revolutionBaltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
12.
—. 1983. Scientific theory and technological testability: Science dynameters, and water turbines in the 19th century. Technology and Culture24:183-98.
13.
Ellam, C. (1983-84). Developments in aircraft landing gear, 1900-1939 . Transactions of the Newcomen Society55:48-51.
14.
Elliott, B., ed. 1988. Technology and social process . Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press .
15.
Gieryn, T.F., and A. E. Figert.1990. Ingredients for a theory of science in society: O-rings, ice water, C-clamp, Richard Feynman and the press. In Theories of science in society, edited by S. Cozzens and T. Gieryn, 67-97. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
16.
Gooding, D., T. J. Pinch, and S. Schaffer, eds. 1989. The uses of experiment.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
17.
Knorr-Cetina, K.1983. The manufacture of knowledgeOxford : Pergamon.
18.
Latour, B.1987. Science in action. Cambridge : Harvard University Press.
19.
—. 1992. Where are the missing masses? Sociology of a few mundane artifacts. In Shaping technology/Building society , edited by W. Bijker and J. Law, 225-58. Cambridge: MIT Press.
20.
Latour, B., and S. W. Woolgar.1979. Laboratory life. London: Sage.
21.
Lynch, M.1985. Art and artifact in laboratory scienceLondon: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
22.
MacKenzie, D.1989. From Kwajalein to Armageddon? Testing and the social construction of missile accuracy. In The uses of experiment , edited by D. Gooding, T. J. Pinch, and S. Schaffer, 409-36. Cambridge : Cambridge University Press.
23.
Mulkay, M.1979a. Knowledge and utility: Implications for the sociology of knowledge. Social Studies of Science9:63-80.
24.
—. 1979b. Science and the sociology of knowledge . London: Allen & Unwin.
25.
Nelkin, D., and L. Tancredi.1989. Dangerous diagnostics: The social power of biological information. New York: Basic Books .
26.
Pickering, A.1984. Against putting the phenomena first: The discovery of the weak neutral current. Studies in the History and Philosophy of Science15:85-117.
—. 1991. How do we treat technical uncertainty in systems failure? The case of space shuttle Challenger. In Social responses to large technological systems, edited by Todd R. La Porte, 143-58. Dordrecht : Kluwer.
29.
Pinch, T.J., M. Ashmore, and J. Mulkay.1992. Technology, testing, text: Clinical budgeting in the UK National Health Service. In Shaping technology/Building society, edited by W. Bijker and J. Law, 265-89. Cambridge: MIT Press.
30.
Pinch, T.J., and W. Bijker.1984. The social construction of facts and artefacts . Social Studies of Science14:399-441.
31.
—. 1986. Science, relativism and the new sociology of science: Reply to Russell. Social Studies of Science16:347-60.
32.
Pinch, T.J., M. Mulkay, and M. Ashmore.1989. Clinical budgeting: Experimentation in the social sciences—A drama in five acts. Accounting, Organizations and Society14:271-301.
33.
Presidential Commission.1986. Report on the space shuttle Challenger accident. Washington, DC.
34.
Russell, S.1986. The social construction of artefacts: A response to Pinch and Bijker. Social Studies of Science16:331-46.
35.
Shapin, S., and S. Schaffer.1985. Leviathan and the air-pump: Hobbes, Boyle and the experimental life. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
36.
Smith, R., and B. Wynne, eds. 1989. Expert evidence: Interpreting science in the law. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
37.
Vincenti, W.G.1990. What engineers know and how they know it . Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
38.
Wickings, I., T. Childs, J. Coles, and C. Wheatcroft.1985. Experiments using PACTS in Southend and Oldham HAs . CASPE Research Report, King Edward's Hospital Fund, London, December.
39.
Woolgar, S. (1991). Configuring the user. Unpublished paper, CRICT, Brunel University.
40.
Wynne, B.1988. Unruly technology: Practical rules, impractical discourse and public understanding. Social Studies of Science18:147-68.
