Formation and expansion of a new organizational field in experimental science

Abstract

This paper examines the formation and expansion of a new organizational field in experimental science: synchrotron radiation laboratories. These labs were once peripheral servants of some specialisms of solid-state physics, but over the 40 years studied they have grown into a worldwide generic resource for tens of thousands of users in a broad spectrum of disciplines. The paper uses insights primarily from historical institutionalism, but also neo-institutional theory, to analyze the formation and expansion of the organizational field of synchrotron radiation laboratories, and thus contributes to the analysis of the rather dramatic growth of this tool for experimental science from a small-scale lab curiosity to a generic research technology. But the key contribution of the paper is to provide insights into multi-level and multi-dimensional change in science systems by analyzing the emergence and expansion of a new organizational field in experimental science, which has implications not least for science policy.