How many individuals consider themselves to be cell biologists but are informed by the journal that their work is not cell biology
How many individuals consider themselves to be cell biologists but are informed by the journal that their work is not cell biology
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Date
2022-09-09
Authors
Worliczek, Hanna Lucia
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10.1002/bewi.202200019
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Keywords
History of the life sciences
History of cell biology
Historical epistemology
Experimental cultures
Description
Mechanistic explanation
Gatekeeping
History of cell biology
Historical epistemology
Experimental cultures
Description
Mechanistic explanation
Gatekeeping
Abstract
Abstract What can we gain from co-analyzing experimental cultures, regionalization, and disciplinary phenomena of late twentieth century life sciences under our historiographic looking glass? This essay investigates the potential of such a strategy for the case of cell biology after 1960. By merging perspectives from historical epistemology inspired by the work of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger with a focus on boundary work in the realm of scientific publishing, community building, and disciplinary norms, a set of understudied scientific practices is exposed. These practices, historically subsumed under the label descriptive, have been as central in cell biology as hypothesis-driven research aiming at mechanistic explanations of cellular function. Against the background of an increasing molecular-mechanistic imperative in cell biology since the late 1960s, knowledge from descriptive practices was often judged as having low value but was nonetheless frequently cited and considered essential. Investigating the underlying epistemic practices and their interactions with disciplinary gatekeeping phenomena (as policed by journals and learned societies) provides historiographic access to the plurality of experimental cultures of cell biology, scattered into many interdisciplinary research fields?with some of them only partially engaged with mechanistic questions.
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© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Worliczek, H. L. How many individuals consider themselves to be cell biologists but are informed by the journal that their work is not cell biology. Berichte Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 45(3), (2022): 344–354, https://doi.org/10.1002/bewi.202200019.
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Worliczek, H. L. (2022). How many individuals consider themselves to be cell biologists but are informed by the journal that their work is not cell biology. Berichte Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 45(3), 344–354.