scholarly journals Re-presenting the social construction of science in light of the propositions of Bruno Latour: For a renewal of the school conception of science in secondary schools

2009 ◽  
Vol 94 (4) ◽  
pp. 743-759 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vincent Richard ◽  
Barbara Bader
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Secondary Schools ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Construction Of Science

Latour’s Prosaic Science

1991 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Robert Brown
Keyword(s):  
Social Construction ◽  
Sociology Of Science ◽  
Detailed Knowledge ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Bruno Latour ◽  
The Social ◽  
Field Notes ◽  
Scientific Facts ◽  
Laboratory Life ◽  
Work First

The most embarrassing thing about ‘facts’ is the etymology of the word. The Latin facere means to make or construct. Bruno Latour, like so many other anti-realists who revel in the word’s history, thinks facts are made by us: they are a social construction. The view acquires some plausibility in Laboratory Life: The Social Construction of Scientific Facts (hereafter LL) which Latour co-authored with Steve Woolgar.1 This work, first published a decade ago, has become a classic in the sociology of science literature. It is in the form of field notes by an ‘anthropologist in the lab.’ This may seem an odd place for an anthropologist, but Latour finds his presence easy to justify. ‘Whereas we have a fairly detailed knowledge of the myths and circumcision rituals of exotic tribes, we remain relatively ignorant of the details of equivalent activity among tribes of scientists … ’ (LL, 17).

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