Give Me a Laboratory and I Shall Move the World (trans. K. Arbiszewski; Ł. Afeltowicz) Cover Image

Dajcie mi laboratorium a poruszę świat (tłum. K. Arbiszewski; Ł. Afeltowicz)
Give Me a Laboratory and I Shall Move the World (trans. K. Arbiszewski; Ł. Afeltowicz)

Author(s): Bruno Latour
Subject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk
Keywords: Sociology of Science; Laboratory ethnography; Archmedean Metaphor.

Summary/Abstract: Starting off from the historic example of Louis Pasteur’s wrestle with the anthrax attacking French farmsteads, the author deals with issues of relationship between the inside and the outside of science (laboratory), the micro- and macro-social level and the role of recording appliances. All those have been related to the changes in the power relationships occurring inside laboratories. Postulated is extension of the methodology elaborated by the laboratory ethnography so that the relation between science and its context may be examined. As a result, it occurs that scientific laboratories are a specific construct devised for continuous passing from the inside to the outside and backwards, effecting alongside it a translation (transposition, relocation) of the key factors. Thereby, the model of the core of science and context thereof is rejected. In an attempt to grasp this conglomerate of processes as a whole, Mr. Latour suggests that the Archimedean metaphor of lever be used, which enables to move the world.

  • Issue Year: 2009
  • Issue No: 1-2
  • Page Range: 163-192
  • Page Count: 30
  • Language: Polish