The Discourse and Praxis Models in Recent Reconstructions of Scientific Knowledge Generation

Abstract

In recent sociological reconstructions of knowledge generation in science, two models of analysis have emerged. On the discourse model, reconstructions are grounded in what scientists say and write; on the praxis model, the focus is on what scientists do. The differences between these respective models are examined in this Note, particularly in the context of three studies employing elements of both models: Laboratory Life (1979), The Manufacture of Knowledge (1981), and Opening Pandora's Box (1984). The salient issues of this Note are: (a) the frequently ambiguous relation in these studies between scientists' praxis and scientists' discourse about praxis; (b) the extent to which the discourse analysis model is successful in moving towards an understanding of scientific praxis; (c) the problematic strategy of anthropological strangeness; and (d) the hermeneutic relation between the sociological observer's and the scientist's respective interpretive frameworks, laboratory context and situated practices.