A periodization of research technologies and of the emergency of genericity |
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| Institution: | 1. Institute for Food Toxicology and Analytical Chemistry, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Bischofsholer Damm 15, 30173 Hannover, Germany;2. Institute of Food Chemistry and Food Biotechnology, Justus-Liebig-University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 58, 35392 Giessen, Germany;3. Laboratory of Chemical Analysis, Department of Veterinary Public Health and Food Safety, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Ghent University, Salisburylaan 133, B-9820 Merelbeke, Belgium;4. Department of Physiology, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Bischofsholer Damm 15, 30173 Hannover, Germany;1. Laboratoire de Pharmacognosie, EA 4267 (FDE/UFC), Faculté de Pharmacie, Université de Bourgogne, 7, Bd. Jeanne d’Arc, BP 87900, 21079 Dijon Cedex, France;2. Laboratorio de Productos Naturales. Departamento de Química, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida 5101, Venezuela;3. Universität Siegen, OC-II, Naturwissenschaftlich-Technische Fakultät, Adolf-Reichwein-Str. 2, D-57076 Siegen, Germany;4. Centre de Recherche Phytochimique, Université de Liège, Institut de Chimie-B6, Sart Tilman, B-4000 Liège I, Belgium;5. Institut des Sciences Moléculaires, CNRS–UMR 5255 et Institut Européen de Chimie et Biologie, Université de Bordeaux, 2 rue Robert Escarpit, 33607 Pessac Cedex, France;6. Cohiro, UFR Médecine, 7, Bd. Jeanne d’Arc, BP 87900, 21079 Dijon Cedex, France |
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| Abstract: | According to the historian and sociologist of science Terry Shinn, the creator of the concept of ‘research technologies’: “Research technologies may sometimes generate promising packets of instrumentation for yet undefined ends. They may offer technological answers to questions that have hardly been raised. Research technologists?s instruments are then generic in the sense that they are base-line apparatus which can subsequently be transformed by experimenters into products tailored to specific economic ends or adapted by experimenters to further cognitive ends in academic research.”1 Genericity thus manifests one of three fundamental characteristics of research technologies. At the same time, however, each research technology emerges out of the specific disciplinary context in which it is initially developed with entirely concrete aims. Consequently, genericity does not exist from the outset but first has to form, along a path that remains to be clarified. It is produced or constructed by the actors on two levels: as an instrument in the laboratory and as a way of speaking at the representational level. This issue yields the structure of this paper. Three options for the transition of a specific technique into a generic research technology are compared. One of them proves to be the most frequent pattern of this dynamic. This is explored further, taking as paradigmatic examples ‘computed tomography’ (CT), ‘nuclear magnetic resonance? (NMR) and its application known as ‘magnetic resonance imaging’ (MRI), together with several additional examples. |
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| Keywords: | Research technology Genericity Historical patterns Periodization Terry Shinn NMR MRI CT Comparison |
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