Agential Conversations: Interviewing Postdoctoral Life Scientists and the Politics of Mundane Research Practices

Science as Culture

Volumn 23, Issue 4, 2014, Pages 537-559

  Müller, Ruth ^a   Kenney, Martha ^b  

^a LUND UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

^b DUKE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

care; feminist theory; interference; life sciences; postdocs; qualitative interviews

Indexed keywords

EID: 84907275115     PISSN: 09505431     EISSN: 14701189     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09505431.2014.916670     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. Åkerlind, G. S. (2005) Postdoctoral researchers: Roles, functions and career prospects, Higher Education Research & Development, 24(1), pp. 21–40.
2. Barad, K. (2007) Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning (Durham, NC: Duke University Press).
3. Blumer, H. (1954) What is wrong with social theory? American Sociological Review, 18, pp. 3–10.
4. Bonaccorsi, A., Daraio, C. and Geuna, A. (2010) Universities in the new knowledge landscape: Tensions, challenges, change—an introduction, Minerva, 48(1), pp. 1–4.
5. Brown, S. (2002) Student counselling and students’ failure, in: M. T. Peelo and T. Wareham (Eds) Failing Students in Higher Education, pp. 139–150 (Buckingham: Society for Research into Higher Education/Open University Press).
6. Chamaz, K. (2006) Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide for Qualitative Analysis (London: Sage Publications).
7. Clarke, A. (2005) Situational Analysis: Grounded Theory after the Postmodern Turn (London: Sage Publications).
8. Clifford, J. and Marcus, G. (1986) Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography (Berkeley: University of California Press).
9. Daston, L. and P. Galison. (2007) Objectivity (New York: Zone Books).
10. Denzin, N. K. and Lincoln, Y. S. (2005) Introduction: The discipline and practice of qualitative research, in: N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (Eds) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, 3rd ed., pp. 1–32 (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage).
11. Despret, V. (2004) The body we care for: Figures for anthropo-zoo-genesis, Body & Society, 10(2–3), pp. 111–134.
12. Etzkowitz, H. and Leydesdorff, L. (1998) The endless transition: A ‘triple helix’ of university–industry–government relations, Minerva, 36(3), pp. 203–208.
13. Felt, U. (ed.) (2009) Knowing and Living in Academic Research. Convergence and Heterogeneity in Research Cultures in the European Context (Prague: Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic).
14. Felt, U. and Fochler, M. (Forthcoming) The reflexive peer-to-peer-interview. Developing a method to study the intertwinement of epistemic, institutional and social aspects in scientists’ biographical narratives. Manuscript in preparation, to be submitted to Qualitative Research.
15. Felt, U. Fochler, M. and Strassnig, M. (2010) Experimente partizipativer ELSA-Forschung. Eine methodenpolitische Reflexion, in: E. Grießler and H. Rohracher (Eds) Genomforschung—Politik—Gesellschaft. Perspektiven auf ethische, rechtliche und soziale Aspekte der Genomforschung. Sonderband ÖZS, pp. 33–67 (Wiesbaden: VS Verlag).
16. Finch, J. (1984) ‘It's great to have someone to talk to’: The ethics and politics of interviewing women, in: C. Bell and H. Roberts (Eds) Social Researching: Politics, Problems, Practice, pp. 70–87 (London: Routledge).
17. Finlay, L. (2002) Negotiating the swamp: The opportunity and challenge of reflexivity in research practice, Qualitative Research, 2(2), pp. 209–230.
18. Fochler, M., Felt, U. and Müller, R. (Forthcoming) For what it's worth. Academic lives, knowledge production and valuation practices in the life sciences. Manuscript in preparation, to be submitted to American Journal of Sociology.
19. Gibbons, M., Limoges, C., Nowotny, H., Schwartzman, S., Scott, P. and Trow, M. (1994) The New Production of Knowledge: The Dynamics of Science and Research in Contemporary Societies (London: Sage).
20. Hammersley, M. and Atkinson, P. (1983) Ethnography: Principles in Practice (London: Tavistock).
21. Haraway, D. (1992) The promise of monsters: A regenerative politics for inappropriate/d others, in: L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, and P. Treichler (Eds) Cultural Studies, pp. 295–337 (New York: Routledge).
22. Haraway, D. (1997) Modest_Witness@Second_Millenium.FemaleMan©_Meets_Oncomouse™ (New York: Routledge).
23. Holstein, J. A. and Gubrium, J. F. (1997) Active interviewing. in: D. Silverman (Ed) Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice, pp. 113–129 (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage).
24. Isbell, L. A., Young, T. P. and Harcourt A. H. (2012) Stag parties linger: Continued gender bias in a female-rich scientific discipline. PLoS ONE, 7(11), e49682. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0049682
25. Jacob, M. and Hellström, T. (Eds) (2000) The Future of Knowledge Production in the Academy (Buckingham: Open University Press).
26. Jensen, C. B. (2007) Sorting attachments: Usefulness of STS in healthcare practice and policy, Science as Culture, 16(3), pp. 237–251.
27. Kemmis, S. and McTaggart, R. (2005) Participatory action research, in: N. K. Denzin and Y. S. Lincoln (Eds) The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research, 3rd ed., pp. 271–330 (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage).
28. Kenney, M. (Forthcoming) Counting, accounting, and accountability: Helen Verran's relational empiricism. Social Studies of Science.
29. Kerr, A. and Lorenz-Meyer, D. (2009) Working together apart, in: U. Felt (Ed) Knowing and Living in Academic Research. Convergence and Heterogeneity in Research Cultures in the European Context, pp. 127–168 (Prague: Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic).
30. Krücken, G., Kosmützky, A. and Torka, M. (Eds) (2007) Towards a Multiversity? Universities between Global Trends and National Traditions (Bielefeld: transcript).
31. Latour, B. (2004) Why has critique run out of steam? From matters of fact to matters of concern, Critical Inquiry, 30(2), pp. 225–248.
32. Law, J. (2004) After Method: Mess in Social Science Research (New York: Routledge).
33. Law, J. (2009) The Greer-Bush Test: On Politics in STS, Version of December 23, 2009. Available at http://www.heterogeneities.net/publications/Law2009TheGreer-BushTest.pdf (accessed 12 July 2013).
34. Law, J. (2010) The double social life of methods. Paper prepared for the Sixth Annual CRESC conference on the Social Life of Method, 31st August—3rd September, St Hugh's College, Oxford. Available at http://www.heterogeneities.net/papers.htm (accessed 12 July 2013).
35. Macfarlane, B. (2005) The disengaged academic: The retreat from citizenship, Higher Education Quarterly, 59(4), pp. 296–312.
36. Martin, A., Myers, N. and Viseu A. (Forthcoming) Politics of care in technoscience. Special issue of Social Studies of Science.
37. Mol, A. (2008) The Logic of Care: Health and the Problem of Patient Choice (London: Routledge).
38. Mol, A., Moser, I. and Pols, J. (2010) Care in Practice: On Tinkering in Clinics Homes and Farms (London: Transaction Publishers).
39. Moser, Ingunn (2011) Dementia and the limits of life: Anthropological sensibilities, STS interferences, and possibilities for action in care, Science, Technology & Human Values, 36(5), pp. 704–722.
40. Moss-Racusin, C. A., Dovidio, J. F., Brescoll, V. L., Graham, M. J. and Handelsman, J. (2012) Science faculty's subtle gender biases favor male students. PNAS 109(41), pp. 16474–16479.
41. Müller, R. (2012a) On becoming a ‘distinguished’ scientist. Careers, individuality and collectivity in postdoctoral researchers’ accounts on living and working in the life sciences, Doctoral Thesis, University of Vienna, June 2012.
42. Müller, R. (2012b) Collaborating in life science research groups: The question of authorship, Higher Education Policy, 25(3), pp. 289–311.
43. Müller, R. (2014 forthcoming) Postdoctoral life scientists and supervision work in the new corporate university: A case study of changes in the cultural norms of science. Minerva.
44. Nature. (2003) Victims of success, Nature 422(6929), pp. 354–355.
45. Nowotny, H., Scott, P. and Gibbons, M. (2001) Re-thinking Science: Knowledge in an Age of Uncertainty (Cambridge: Polity).
46. Power, M. (1997) From risk society to audit society, Soziale Systeme, 3(1), pp. 3–21.
47. Puig de la Bellacasa, M. (2010) Ethical doings in naturecultures, Ethics, Place, and Environment, 13(2), pp. 151–169.
48. Puig, de la Bellacasa, M. (2011) Matters of care in technoscience: Assembling neglected things, Social Studies of Science, 41(1), pp. 85–106.
49. Salonius, A. (forthcoming) Social organization of work in biomedical labs in leading universities in Canada: Socio-historical dynamics and the influence of research funding. Social Studies of Science.
50. Scaffadi, A. K. and Berman J. E. (2011) A positive postdoctoral experience is related to quality supervision and career mentoring, collaborations, networking and a nurturing research environment, Higher Education, 62(6), pp. 685–698.
51. Science. (2005) Not your father's postdoc, Editorial feature, Science, 308(5722), pp. 717–718.
52. Sigl, L. (2012) Embodied anxiety. On experiences of living, working and coping with conditions of precarity in research cultures of the academic life sciences. Doctoral thesis, University of Vienna, August 2012.
53. Silverman, D. (2006) Interpreting Qualitative Data (London: Sage).
54. Slaughter, S. and Leslie, L. L. (1997) Academic Capitalism: Politics, Policies, and the Entrepreneurial University (Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press).
55. Sommerlund, J. and Boutaiba, S. (2007) Borders of ‘the boundaryless career’, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 20(4), pp. 525–538.
56. Strathern, M. (Ed.) (2000) Audit Cultures. Anthropological Studies in Accountability, Ethics and the Academy (London: Routledge).
57. The Scientist. (2006) Are we training too many scientists? Feature, The Scientist, 20(9), pp. 42–50.
58. Torka, M. (2009) Die Projektförmigkeit der Forschung. Wissenschafts- und Technikforschung 3 (Baden-Baden: Nomos).
59. Traweek, S. (1988) Beamtimes and Lifetimes. The World of High Energy Physicists (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
60. Verran, H. (2001) Science and an African Logic (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).
61. Verran, H. (2007) The telling challenge of Africa's economies, African Studies Review, 50(2), pp. 163–182.
62. Vikkelsø, S. (2007) Description as intervention: Engagement and resistance in actor-network analyses, Science as Culture, 16(3), pp. 297–309.
63. Zabrodska, K., Linnell, S., Laws, C. and Davies, B. (2011) Bullying as intra-active process in neoliberal universities, Qualitative Inquiry, 17, pp. 709–719.