Concrete practices: Testing in an earthquake-engineering laboratory

Social Studies of Science

Volumn 29, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 483-518

  Sims, Benjamin ^a  

^a NONE   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0033468648     PISSN: 03063127     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/030631299029004002     Document Type: Article

References (74)

1. This paper is based on interviews and participant observation conducted at the Structures Lab at various times over the course of the past three years, and on a series of interviews with engineers at the California Department of Transportation.
2. This argument, which I will describe in detail later, was made first by Donald MacKenzie in 'From Kwajalein to Armageddon? Testing and the Social Construction of Missile Accuracy', in David Gooding, Trevor Pinch and Simon Schaffer (eds), The Uses of Experiment: Studies in the Natural Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 409-35; see also MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1990), 340-81. Trevor J. Pinch elaborates upon this argument, and coins the term 'projection', in his later paper, '"Testing - One, Two, Three . . . Testing!": Toward a Sociology of Testing', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter 1993), 25-41.
3. This argument, which I will describe in detail later, was made first by Donald MacKenzie in 'From Kwajalein to Armageddon? Testing and the Social Construction of Missile Accuracy', in David Gooding, Trevor Pinch and Simon Schaffer (eds), The Uses of Experiment: Studies in the Natural Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 409-35; see also MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1990), 340-81. Trevor J. Pinch elaborates upon this argument, and coins the term 'projection', in his later paper, '"Testing - One, Two, Three . . . Testing!": Toward a Sociology of Testing', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter 1993), 25-41.
4. This argument, which I will describe in detail later, was made first by Donald MacKenzie in 'From Kwajalein to Armageddon? Testing and the Social Construction of Missile Accuracy', in David Gooding, Trevor Pinch and Simon Schaffer (eds), The Uses of Experiment: Studies in the Natural Sciences (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), 409-35; see also MacKenzie, Inventing Accuracy: A Historical Sociology of Nuclear Missile Guidance (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1990), 340-81. Trevor J. Pinch elaborates upon this argument, and coins the term 'projection', in his later paper, '"Testing - One, Two, Three . . . Testing!": Toward a Sociology of Testing', Science, Technology, & Human Values, Vol. 18, No. 1 (Winter 1993), 25-41.
5. Competing Against Time: Report to Governor George Deukmejian from the Governor's Board of Inquiry on the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake (Sacramento, CA: State of California, Office of Planning and Research, 1990).
6. See, for example, Karin Knorr-Cetina, The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981); Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2nd edn, 1986); Michael Lynch, Art and Artifact in Laboratory Science: A Study of Shop Work and Shop Talk in a Research Laboratory (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985); Sharon Traweek, Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988); Chandra Mukerji, A Fragile Power: Scientists and the State (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989).
7. See, for example, Karin Knorr-Cetina, The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981); Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2nd edn, 1986); Michael Lynch, Art and Artifact in Laboratory Science: A Study of Shop Work and Shop Talk in a Research Laboratory (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985); Sharon Traweek, Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988); Chandra Mukerji, A Fragile Power: Scientists and the State (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989).
8. See, for example, Karin Knorr-Cetina, The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981); Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2nd edn, 1986); Michael Lynch, Art and Artifact in Laboratory Science: A Study of Shop Work and Shop Talk in a Research Laboratory (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985); Sharon Traweek, Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988); Chandra Mukerji, A Fragile Power: Scientists and the State (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989).
9. See, for example, Karin Knorr-Cetina, The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981); Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2nd edn, 1986); Michael Lynch, Art and Artifact in Laboratory Science: A Study of Shop Work and Shop Talk in a Research Laboratory (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985); Sharon Traweek, Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988); Chandra Mukerji, A Fragile Power: Scientists and the State (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989).
10. See, for example, Karin Knorr-Cetina, The Manufacture of Knowledge: An Essay on the Constructivist and Contextual Nature of Science (Oxford: Pergamon Press, 1981); Bruno Latour and Steve Woolgar, Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2nd edn, 1986); Michael Lynch, Art and Artifact in Laboratory Science: A Study of Shop Work and Shop Talk in a Research Laboratory (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1985); Sharon Traweek, Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988); Chandra Mukerji, A Fragile Power: Scientists and the State (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1989).
11. MacKenzie (1989), 415-18; Mackenzie (1990), 347; and Pinch, 29-32; all op. cit. note 2.
12. MacKenzie (1989), op. cit. note 2, 411 (emphasis in original).
13. H.M. Collins, 'The TEA Set: Tacit Knowledge and Scientific Networks', Science Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (May 1974), 165-86; Collins, 'The Seven Sexes: A Study in the Sociology of a Phenomenon, or the Replication of Experiments in Physics', Sociology, Vol. 9 (1975), 205-24; Collins, 'Son of Seven Sexes: The Social Destruction of a Physical Phenomenon', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 11, No. 1 (February 1981), 33-62. These papers are summarized and tied together in Collins, Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2nd edn, 1992).
14. H.M. Collins, 'The TEA Set: Tacit Knowledge and Scientific Networks', Science Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (May 1974), 165-86; Collins, 'The Seven Sexes: A Study in the Sociology of a Phenomenon, or the Replication of Experiments in Physics', Sociology, Vol. 9 (1975), 205-24; Collins, 'Son of Seven Sexes: The Social Destruction of a Physical Phenomenon', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 11, No. 1 (February 1981), 33-62. These papers are summarized and tied together in Collins, Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2nd edn, 1992).
15. H.M. Collins, 'The TEA Set: Tacit Knowledge and Scientific Networks', Science Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (May 1974), 165-86; Collins, 'The Seven Sexes: A Study in the Sociology of a Phenomenon, or the Replication of Experiments in Physics', Sociology, Vol. 9 (1975), 205-24; Collins, 'Son of Seven Sexes: The Social Destruction of a Physical Phenomenon', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 11, No. 1 (February 1981), 33-62. These papers are summarized and tied together in Collins, Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2nd edn, 1992).
16. H.M. Collins, 'The TEA Set: Tacit Knowledge and Scientific Networks', Science Studies, Vol. 4, No. 2 (May 1974), 165-86; Collins, 'The Seven Sexes: A Study in the Sociology of a Phenomenon, or the Replication of Experiments in Physics', Sociology, Vol. 9 (1975), 205-24; Collins, 'Son of Seven Sexes: The Social Destruction of a Physical Phenomenon', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 11, No. 1 (February 1981), 33-62. These papers are summarized and tied together in Collins, Changing Order: Replication and Induction in Scientific Practice (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2nd edn, 1992).
17. MacKenzie (1989), op. cit. note 2, 414.
18. Although MacKenzie refers in his theoretical discussion to Edward Constant's work on technological communities and 'traditions of technological testability', these issues are not elaborated on in his case study. See E.W. Constant, II, 'Scientific Theory and Technological Testability: Science, Dynamometers, and Water Turbines in the 19th Century', Technology and Culture, Vol. 24 (1983), 183-98, and Constant, The Origins of the Turbojet Revolution (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980).
19. Although MacKenzie refers in his theoretical discussion to Edward Constant's work on technological communities and 'traditions of technological testability', these issues are not elaborated on in his case study. See E.W. Constant, II, 'Scientific Theory and Technological Testability: Science, Dynamometers, and Water Turbines in the 19th Century', Technology and Culture, Vol. 24 (1983), 183-98, and Constant, The Origins of the Turbojet Revolution (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980).
20. See Collins, 'TEA Set', op. cit. note 7, and Collins, Changing Order, op. cit. note 7, 51-78.
21. See Collins, 'TEA Set', op. cit. note 7, and Collins, Changing Order, op. cit. note 7, 51-78.
22. See Anselm Strauss, 'A Social World Perspective', Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 119-28. For examples of how this approach has been applied to science and technology, see Rob Kling and Elihu Gerson, 'Patterns of Segmentation and Intersection in the Computing World', Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 24-43; Gerson, 'Scientific Work and Social Worlds', Knowledge, Vol. 4 (1983), 357-77; Susan Leigh Star and James Griesemer, 'Institutional Ecology, "Translations" and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-1939', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 19, No. 3 (August 1989), 387-420; Joan Fujimura, 'Crafting Science: Standardized Packages, Boundary Objects, and "Translation"', in Andrew Pickering (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1992), 168-211. A useful overview of the approach is given in Karin Garrety, 'Social Worlds, Actor-Networks and Controversy: The Case of Cholesterol, Dietary Fat and Heart Disease', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, No. 5 (October 1997), 727-73.
23. See Anselm Strauss, 'A Social World Perspective', Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 119-28. For examples of how this approach has been applied to science and technology, see Rob Kling and Elihu Gerson, 'Patterns of Segmentation and Intersection in the Computing World', Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 24-43; Gerson, 'Scientific Work and Social Worlds', Knowledge, Vol. 4 (1983), 357-77; Susan Leigh Star and James Griesemer, 'Institutional Ecology, "Translations" and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-1939', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 19, No. 3 (August 1989), 387-420; Joan Fujimura, 'Crafting Science: Standardized Packages, Boundary Objects, and "Translation"', in Andrew Pickering (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1992), 168-211. A useful overview of the approach is given in Karin Garrety, 'Social Worlds, Actor-Networks and Controversy: The Case of Cholesterol, Dietary Fat and Heart Disease', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, No. 5 (October 1997), 727-73.
24. See Anselm Strauss, 'A Social World Perspective', Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 119-28. For examples of how this approach has been applied to science and technology, see Rob Kling and Elihu Gerson, 'Patterns of Segmentation and Intersection in the Computing World', Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 24-43; Gerson, 'Scientific Work and Social Worlds', Knowledge, Vol. 4 (1983), 357-77; Susan Leigh Star and James Griesemer, 'Institutional Ecology, "Translations" and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-1939', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 19, No. 3 (August 1989), 387-420; Joan Fujimura, 'Crafting Science: Standardized Packages, Boundary Objects, and "Translation"', in Andrew Pickering (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1992), 168-211. A useful overview of the approach is given in Karin Garrety, 'Social Worlds, Actor-Networks and Controversy: The Case of Cholesterol, Dietary Fat and Heart Disease', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, No. 5 (October 1997), 727-73.
25. See Anselm Strauss, 'A Social World Perspective', Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 119-28. For examples of how this approach has been applied to science and technology, see Rob Kling and Elihu Gerson, 'Patterns of Segmentation and Intersection in the Computing World', Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 24-43; Gerson, 'Scientific Work and Social Worlds', Knowledge, Vol. 4 (1983), 357-77; Susan Leigh Star and James Griesemer, 'Institutional Ecology, "Translations" and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-1939', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 19, No. 3 (August 1989), 387-420; Joan Fujimura, 'Crafting Science: Standardized Packages, Boundary Objects, and "Translation"', in Andrew Pickering (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1992), 168-211. A useful overview of the approach is given in Karin Garrety, 'Social Worlds, Actor-Networks and Controversy: The Case of Cholesterol, Dietary Fat and Heart Disease', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, No. 5 (October 1997), 727-73.
26. See Anselm Strauss, 'A Social World Perspective', Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 119-28. For examples of how this approach has been applied to science and technology, see Rob Kling and Elihu Gerson, 'Patterns of Segmentation and Intersection in the Computing World', Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 24-43; Gerson, 'Scientific Work and Social Worlds', Knowledge, Vol. 4 (1983), 357-77; Susan Leigh Star and James Griesemer, 'Institutional Ecology, "Translations" and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-1939', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 19, No. 3 (August 1989), 387-420; Joan Fujimura, 'Crafting Science: Standardized Packages, Boundary Objects, and "Translation"', in Andrew Pickering (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1992), 168-211. A useful overview of the approach is given in Karin Garrety, 'Social Worlds, Actor-Networks and Controversy: The Case of Cholesterol, Dietary Fat and Heart Disease', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, No. 5 (October 1997), 727-73.
27. See Anselm Strauss, 'A Social World Perspective', Studies in Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 119-28. For examples of how this approach has been applied to science and technology, see Rob Kling and Elihu Gerson, 'Patterns of Segmentation and Intersection in the Computing World', Symbolic Interaction, Vol. 1 (1978), 24-43; Gerson, 'Scientific Work and Social Worlds', Knowledge, Vol. 4 (1983), 357-77; Susan Leigh Star and James Griesemer, 'Institutional Ecology, "Translations" and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-1939', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 19, No. 3 (August 1989), 387-420; Joan Fujimura, 'Crafting Science: Standardized Packages, Boundary Objects, and "Translation"', in Andrew Pickering (ed.), Science as Practice and Culture (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1992), 168-211. A useful overview of the approach is given in Karin Garrety, 'Social Worlds, Actor-Networks and Controversy: The Case of Cholesterol, Dietary Fat and Heart Disease', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 27, No. 5 (October 1997), 727-73.
28. Strauss, op. cit. note 11, 122-23.
29. Star & Griesemer, op. cit. note 11, 411. Here they draw on the work of Chicago-school sociologists Robert Park and Everett Hughes.
30. Ibid., 393 (emphasis in original). Also see Fujimura, op. cit. note 11, for an elaboration of this idea through the concept of 'standardized packages'.
31. This sort of analysis has certain obvious parallels with other work, such as the actor-network approach of Bruno Latour, Michel Callon and others. However, these authors are centrally concerned with issues of technoscientific change, and in the exercises of power, translations of terms and simplification and 'black boxing' that go into the construction of sociotechnical networks. See, for example, B. Latour, Science in Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), and M. Callon, 'Society in the Making: The Study of Technology as a Tool for Sociological Analysis', in Wiebe Bijker, Thomas Hughes and Trevor Pinch (eds), The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1987), 83-103. While these concerns could be brought into my analysis, I am more interested in examining the detailed workings of a well-established network. I believe this approach makes it possible to examine the normal work of testing in greater depth. Some of the problems surrounding testing and the translation of practices between work settings that I discuss in this paper also arise in the context of DNA-typing. See, in particular, Arthur Daemmrich, 'The Evidence Does Not Speak for Itself: Expert Witnesses and the Organization of DNA-Typing Companies', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, Nos 5-6 (October-December 1998), 741-72; and Kathleen Jordan and Michael Lynch, 'The Dissemination, Standardization and Routinization of a Molecular Biological Technique', ibid., 773-800.
32. This sort of analysis has certain obvious parallels with other work, such as the actor-network approach of Bruno Latour, Michel Callon and others. However, these authors are centrally concerned with issues of technoscientific change, and in the exercises of power, translations of terms and simplification and 'black boxing' that go into the construction of sociotechnical networks. See, for example, B. Latour, Science in Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), and M. Callon, 'Society in the Making: The Study of Technology as a Tool for Sociological Analysis', in Wiebe Bijker, Thomas Hughes and Trevor Pinch (eds), The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1987), 83-103. While these concerns could be brought into my analysis, I am more interested in examining the detailed workings of a well-established network. I believe this approach makes it possible to examine the normal work of testing in greater depth. Some of the problems surrounding testing and the translation of practices between work settings that I discuss in this paper also arise in the context of DNA-typing. See, in particular, Arthur Daemmrich, 'The Evidence Does Not Speak for Itself: Expert Witnesses and the Organization of DNA-Typing Companies', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, Nos 5-6 (October-December 1998), 741-72; and Kathleen Jordan and Michael Lynch, 'The Dissemination, Standardization and Routinization of a Molecular Biological Technique', ibid., 773-800.
33. This sort of analysis has certain obvious parallels with other work, such as the actor-network approach of Bruno Latour, Michel Callon and others. However, these authors are centrally concerned with issues of technoscientific change, and in the exercises of power, translations of terms and simplification and 'black boxing' that go into the construction of sociotechnical networks. See, for example, B. Latour, Science in Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), and M. Callon, 'Society in the Making: The Study of Technology as a Tool for Sociological Analysis', in Wiebe Bijker, Thomas Hughes and Trevor Pinch (eds), The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1987), 83-103. While these concerns could be brought into my analysis, I am more interested in examining the detailed workings of a well-established network. I believe this approach makes it possible to examine the normal work of testing in greater depth. Some of the problems surrounding testing and the translation of practices between work settings that I discuss in this paper also arise in the context of DNA-typing. See, in particular, Arthur Daemmrich, 'The Evidence Does Not Speak for Itself: Expert Witnesses and the Organization of DNA-Typing Companies', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, Nos 5-6 (October-December 1998), 741-72; and Kathleen Jordan and Michael Lynch, 'The Dissemination, Standardization and Routinization of a Molecular Biological Technique', ibid., 773-800.
34. This sort of analysis has certain obvious parallels with other work, such as the actor-network approach of Bruno Latour, Michel Callon and others. However, these authors are centrally concerned with issues of technoscientific change, and in the exercises of power, translations of terms and simplification and 'black boxing' that go into the construction of sociotechnical networks. See, for example, B. Latour, Science in Action (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1987), and M. Callon, 'Society in the Making: The Study of Technology as a Tool for Sociological Analysis', in Wiebe Bijker, Thomas Hughes and Trevor Pinch (eds), The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1987), 83-103. While these concerns could be brought into my analysis, I am more interested in examining the detailed workings of a well-established network. I believe this approach makes it possible to examine the normal work of testing in greater depth. Some of the problems surrounding testing and the translation of practices between work settings that I discuss in this paper also arise in the context of DNA-typing. See, in particular, Arthur Daemmrich, 'The Evidence Does Not Speak for Itself: Expert Witnesses and the Organization of DNA-Typing Companies', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, Nos 5-6 (October-December 1998), 741-72; and Kathleen Jordan and Michael Lynch, 'The Dissemination, Standardization and Routinization of a Molecular Biological Technique', ibid., 773-800.
35. I thank Steven Epstein for pointing this out to me.
36. Pinch, op. cit. note 2, 26.
37. See Latour, op. cit. note 15, 2-3, 130-31, and Callon, op. cit. note 15, 93-95.
38. The participants in these work settings may share a common way of understanding technology that is similar to an 'object world', as described by Louis L. Bucciarelli in relation to engineering design: see L.L. Bucciarelli, Designing Engineers (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1994).
39. Peter Galison, Image and Logic: A Material Culture of Microphysics (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1997), 781-844.
40. This is generally similar to what Glenn Bugos has called 'acceptance testing': see G. Bugos, 'Manufacturing Certainty: Testing and Program Management for the F-4 Phantom II', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 23, No. 2 (May 1993), 265-300.
41. MacKenzie (1989), op. cit. note 2. See also the tests described in Bruno Latour, Aramis, or The Love of Technology, trans. Catherine Porter (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), and John Law and Michel Callon, 'The Life and Death of an Aircraft: A Network Analysis of Technical Change', in Wiebe Bijker and Law (eds), Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1992), 21-52.
42. MacKenzie (1989), op. cit. note 2. See also the tests described in Bruno Latour, Aramis, or The Love of Technology, trans. Catherine Porter (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), and John Law and Michel Callon, 'The Life and Death of an Aircraft: A Network Analysis of Technical Change', in Wiebe Bijker and Law (eds), Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1992), 21-52.
43. MacKenzie (1989), op. cit. note 2. See also the tests described in Bruno Latour, Aramis, or The Love of Technology, trans. Catherine Porter (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996), and John Law and Michel Callon, 'The Life and Death of an Aircraft: A Network Analysis of Technical Change', in Wiebe Bijker and Law (eds), Shaping Technology/Building Society: Studies in Sociotechnical Change (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1992), 21-52.
44. An excellent historical example of this sort of testing can be found in Nathan Rosenberg and Walter Vincenti, The Britannia Bridge: The Generation and Diffusion of Technological Knowledge (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1978). The bridge featured an unprecedented tubular design, so an extensive series of tests was carried out to explore the fundamental causes of failure in metal tubes, and to see which configurations were most stable. The results of this research subsequently proved useful in many different areas of engineering.
45. Knorr-Cetina and Latour & Woolgar, opera cit. note 4, are all consistent with this trend. Lynch, op. cit. note 4, looks at the work of a group of graduate students, but not in the context of an overall division of labour in the laboratory. In part, this lack of consideration of rôle differentiation could stem from the relatively small scale of the laboratories studied in these works. Traweek and Mukerji, opera cit. note 4, are two notable exceptions to the general trend, and both deal with relatively large-scale laboratories in high-energy physics and oceanography, respectively.
46. Steven Shapin, 'The Invisible Technician', American Scientist, Vol. 77 (1989), 554-63, and Shapin, A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), 355-407.
47. Steven Shapin, 'The Invisible Technician', American Scientist, Vol. 77 (1989), 554-63, and Shapin, A Social History of Truth: Civility and Science in Seventeenth-Century England (Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1994), 355-407.
48. Mukerji, op. cit. note 4, 125-45. For another contemporary study focusing on technicians, see Julian Orr, Talking About Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996).
49. Mukerji, op. cit. note 4, 125-45. For another contemporary study focusing on technicians, see Julian Orr, Talking About Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996).
50. Stephen Barley, 'Technicians in the Workplace: Ethnographic Evidence for Bringing Work into Organization Studies', Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 41 (1996), 404-40. For a more detailed discussion of laboratory technicians, see Barley and Beth Bechky, 'In the Backrooms of Science: The Work of Technicians in Science Labs', Work and Occupations, Vol. 21 (1994), 85-126.
51. Stephen Barley, 'Technicians in the Workplace: Ethnographic Evidence for Bringing Work into Organization Studies', Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 41 (1996), 404-40. For a more detailed discussion of laboratory technicians, see Barley and Beth Bechky, 'In the Backrooms of Science: The Work of Technicians in Science Labs', Work and Occupations, Vol. 21 (1994), 85-126.
52. Barley (1996), op. cit. note 27, 418.
53. Ibid., 422.
54. Ibid., 420.
55. This term is proposed by Constant (1983), op. cit. note 9.
56. These methods are summarized in Egor P. Popov, 'Experiment as an Aid to Structural Seismic Design', Experimental Mechanics, Vol. 26 (1986), 194-208. The reasons for the widespread use of quasi-static testing are discussed in some detail in Robert T. Leon and Gregory G. Deierlein, 'Considerations for the Use of Quasi-Static Testing', Earthquake Spectra, Vol. 12 (1996), 87-109.
57. These methods are summarized in Egor P. Popov, 'Experiment as an Aid to Structural Seismic Design', Experimental Mechanics, Vol. 26 (1986), 194-208. The reasons for the widespread use of quasi-static testing are discussed in some detail in Robert T. Leon and Gregory G. Deierlein, 'Considerations for the Use of Quasi-Static Testing', Earthquake Spectra, Vol. 12 (1996), 87-109.
58. This method is also sometimes referred to as 'pseudo-static' testing: see Popov, op. cit. note 32.
59. In addition to the test methods discussed here, a hybrid method known as 'pseudo-dynamic' testing has been developed recently. It uses multiple hydraulic actuators controlled by a computer program which simulates the motion that a structure would undergo during a specific earthquake, but at the slow speed of a quasi-static test. This method is still being refined and is not yet in widespread use. See F. Seible, G.A. Hegemier, A. Igarashi and G.R. Kingsley, 'Simulated Seismic-Load Tests on Full-Scale 5-Story Masonry Building', ASCE Journal of Structural Engineering, Vol. 120 (1994), 903-24.
60. Leon & Deierlein, op. cit. note 32.
61. Ibid., 87.
62. This research is presented in Anthony V. Sánchez, Frieder Seible and M.J. Nigel Priestley, Seismic Performance of Flared Bridge Columns, Structural Systems Research Project Report No. 97/06 (La Jolla, CA: University of California, San Diego, Division of Structural Engineering, 1997).
63. The smaller scale of the test specimens may also be relevant here, but this technician did not see it as a major factor.
64. M.J.N. Priestley, F. Seible and C.M. Uang, The Northridge Earthquake of January 17, 1994, Damage Analysis of Selected Bridges, Structural Systems Research Project Report No. 94/06 (La Jolla, CA: University of California, San Diego, Division of Structural Engineering, 1994).
65. See Joseph O'Connell, 'Metrology: The Creation of Universality by the Circulation of Particulars', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 23, No. 1 (February 1993), 129-73; Simon Schaffer, 'Late Victorian Metrology and its Instrumentation: A Manufactory of Ohms', in Robert Bud and Susan E. Cozzens (eds), Invisible Connections: Instruments, Institutions, and Science (Bellingham, WA: SPIE Optical Engineering Press, 1992), 23-56; Ken Alder, 'MakingThings the Same: Representation, Tolerance and the End of the Ancien Régime in France', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, No. 4 (August 1998), 499-545; Bruce Curtis, 'From the Moral Thermometer to Money: Metrological Reform in Pre-Confederation Canada', ibid., 547-70; Alexandre Mallard, 'Compare, Standardize and Settle Agreement: On Some Usual Metrological Problems', ibid., 571-601; and Latour, op. cit. note 15, 250-54.
66. See Joseph O'Connell, 'Metrology: The Creation of Universality by the Circulation of Particulars', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 23, No. 1 (February 1993), 129-73; Simon Schaffer, 'Late Victorian Metrology and its Instrumentation: A Manufactory of Ohms', in Robert Bud and Susan E. Cozzens (eds), Invisible Connections: Instruments, Institutions, and Science (Bellingham, WA: SPIE Optical Engineering Press, 1992), 23-56; Ken Alder, 'MakingThings the Same: Representation, Tolerance and the End of the Ancien Régime in France', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, No. 4 (August 1998), 499-545; Bruce Curtis, 'From the Moral Thermometer to Money: Metrological Reform in Pre-Confederation Canada', ibid., 547-70; Alexandre Mallard, 'Compare, Standardize and Settle Agreement: On Some Usual Metrological Problems', ibid., 571-601; and Latour, op. cit. note 15, 250-54.
67. See Joseph O'Connell, 'Metrology: The Creation of Universality by the Circulation of Particulars', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 23, No. 1 (February 1993), 129-73; Simon Schaffer, 'Late Victorian Metrology and its Instrumentation: A Manufactory of Ohms', in Robert Bud and Susan E. Cozzens (eds), Invisible Connections: Instruments, Institutions, and Science (Bellingham, WA: SPIE Optical Engineering Press, 1992), 23-56; Ken Alder, 'MakingThings the Same: Representation, Tolerance and the End of the Ancien Régime in France', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, No. 4 (August 1998), 499-545; Bruce Curtis, 'From the Moral Thermometer to Money: Metrological Reform in Pre-Confederation Canada', ibid., 547-70; Alexandre Mallard, 'Compare, Standardize and Settle Agreement: On Some Usual Metrological Problems', ibid., 571-601; and Latour, op. cit. note 15, 250-54.
68. See Joseph O'Connell, 'Metrology: The Creation of Universality by the Circulation of Particulars', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 23, No. 1 (February 1993), 129-73; Simon Schaffer, 'Late Victorian Metrology and its Instrumentation: A Manufactory of Ohms', in Robert Bud and Susan E. Cozzens (eds), Invisible Connections: Instruments, Institutions, and Science (Bellingham, WA: SPIE Optical Engineering Press, 1992), 23-56; Ken Alder, 'MakingThings the Same: Representation, Tolerance and the End of the Ancien Régime in France', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, No. 4 (August 1998), 499-545; Bruce Curtis, 'From the Moral Thermometer to Money: Metrological Reform in Pre-Confederation Canada', ibid., 547-70; Alexandre Mallard, 'Compare, Standardize and Settle Agreement: On Some Usual Metrological Problems', ibid., 571-601; and Latour, op. cit. note 15, 250-54.
69. See Joseph O'Connell, 'Metrology: The Creation of Universality by the Circulation of Particulars', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 23, No. 1 (February 1993), 129-73; Simon Schaffer, 'Late Victorian Metrology and its Instrumentation: A Manufactory of Ohms', in Robert Bud and Susan E. Cozzens (eds), Invisible Connections: Instruments, Institutions, and Science (Bellingham, WA: SPIE Optical Engineering Press, 1992), 23-56; Ken Alder, 'MakingThings the Same: Representation, Tolerance and the End of the Ancien Régime in France', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 28, No. 4 (August 1998), 499-545; Bruce Curtis, 'From the Moral Thermometer to Money: Metrological Reform in Pre-Confederation Canada', ibid., 547-70; Alexandre Mallard, 'Compare, Standardize and Settle Agreement: On Some Usual Metrological Problems', ibid., 571-601; and Latour, op. cit. note 15, 250-54.
70. This interviewee, a Caltrans engineer, gave as an example a program developed by researchers at the Structures Lab called COLRET, which is currently used at Caltrans, but in a substantially altered form. The program is described in Y.H. Chai, M.J.N. Priestley and F. Seible, Flexural Retrofit of Circular Reinforced Bridge Columns by Steel Jacketing: COLRET - A Computer Program for Strength and Ductility Calculation, Structural Systems Research Project Report No. 91/05 (La Jolla, CA: University of California, San Diego, Division of Structural Engineering, 1991).
71. For example, M.J.N. Priestley, F. Seible and Y.H. Chai, Design Guidelines for Assessment, Retrofit and Repair of Bridges for Seismic Performance, Structural Systems Research Project Report No. 92/01 (La Jolla, CA: University of California, San Diego, Division of Structural Engineering, 1992).
72. M.J.N. Priestley, F. Seible and Gian Michele Calvi, Seismic Design and Retrofit of Bridges (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996).
73. This description is based primarily upon the interview with C.S., a senior designer at a major engineering firm who has served on several peer-review panels.
74. On the latter, see Galison, op. cit. note 20.