Scientific fields as epistemic regimes: new opportunities for comparative science studies

Abstract

In this paper we develop and apply a comparative framework for the epistemic regimes of scientific fields, which we hope may contribute to strengthening field-comparative research in the sociology of science. We start from the comparative framework developed by Richard Whitley (1984) but modified it radically in order to develop an approach that includes more characteristics of research practices and social structure, and uses characteristics that can be empirically operationalised for a fine-grained comparative analysis of epistemic regimes. We use data from several empirical studies for a comparative description of the epistemic regimes of experimental atomic and molecular optics (AMO physics), plant biology, early modern history, and automotive engineering. This comparison serves as proof of concept. The usefulness of our framework is demonstrated by applying it to an explanation of the emergence of individual research programmes in the four fields. Further possible applications that are briefly discussed include field-specific effects of evaluation regimes, field-specific career patterns, and field-specific practices of data sharing.