Science studies
The science research (including science science or meta-science ), in the Anglo-American science studies, is an interdisciplinary research field. It examines the production, representation and reception of science using scientific methods to describe and find out how science works, how it is structured and how it evolves. It deals with the philosophical (particularly epistemological ), historical and social contexts of science. Similar to the field of cultural studies, the field defined by the subject matter. To find insights and methods from the history of science, philosophy of science, the sociology of science, Wissenschaftsethnographie, science ethics, aesthetics and science Scientometrics input into science research. The scientific research is in this case of older approaches from which faced the sciences either uncritical and / or normative. Central for this was and is the questioning of central Dichtomomien ( discovery and context of justification, science and technology, nature and culture ), by which the separation between the natural sciences and other cultural and social areas was established.
Well-known German -speaking representatives of the scientific research of sociologist Peter Weingart ( Bielefeld), the sociologist Helga Nowotny and the philosopher Gerhard Fröhlich ( Linz).
The objects of investigation include:
- The laboratory as a place of knowledge production (including Karin Knorr Cetina, Bruno Latour, Hans -Jörg Rheinberger )
- Interactions between science and technology (eg Wiebe Bijker, Trevor Pinch, Thomas P. Hughes )
- Interactions between science, society and politics (including Peter Weingart, Ulrike Felt, Helga Nowotny )
- Visual Culture ( among others Peter Geimer )
- Scientific education practices (including Sharon Traweek )
- Research institutions
- Science Management
In the context of evaluations science research has an impact on science policy decisions.