Social Order in Science through the Prism of Large Research Collaborations

Abstract

Large research collaborations are a strategically relevant object of study for understanding the social order of science. We argue that studying large research collaborations allows to address three interrelated questions that are crucial for the sociology of science; namely, how the social order of science is shaped, how science is embedded in society, and how science relates to politics. Against this background, we empirically investigate how power-knowledge relations are set up in the self-government of large research collaborations and how these self-governing forms of organization are justified or legitimized. Based on a literature review, we present and analyse two empirical cases, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the next generation Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT) and identify common issues that are continuously controversial: membership, distribution of power/participation, legitimization, and recognition/scientific rewards. Arguing that these characteristics mirror and constitute crucial elements of social order in science, we elaborate on their normative implications and find constitutive elements of social order in self-governing political collectives, among them a preference for decentralized and dynamic forms of governance.