The Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts: or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology might Benefit Each Other

TLDR

Scientific facts and technological artefacts are understood as social constructs within the proposed integrated social constructivist programme. The paper outlines the need for an integrated social constructivist approach to studying science and technology and identifies future research directions. The authors review literature on sociology of science, science‑technology relations, and technology studies, and combine the relativism programme with a recent study of artefact construction to formulate the new approach. They develop and illustrate the concepts of interpretative flexibility, closure mechanism, and social group using examples from solar physics and bicycle development.

Abstract

The need for an integrated social constructivist approach towards the study of science and technology is outlined. Within such a programme both scientific facts and technological artefacts are to be understood as social constructs. Literature on the sociology of science, the science-technology relationship, and technology studies is reviewed. The empirical programme of relativism within the sociology of scientific knowledge and a recent study of the social construction of technological artefacts are combined to produce the new approach. The concepts of `interpretative flexibility' and `closure mechanism', and the notion of `social group' are developed and illustrated by reference to a study of solar physics and a study of the development of the bicycle. The paper concludes by setting out some of the terrain to be explored in future studies.