Till Örebro universitet

Ethnography of historical texts as a way of understanding scientific knowledge production.  How does a fact become a fact? This question puzzled the Polish-Jewish microbiologist Ludwik Fleck (1896–1961) who in the 1930s developed the first system of the historical philosophy and sociology of science. In Fleck’s footprint followed Kuhn, Knorr Cetina, Latour, Woolgar and others who from different angles contributed to what todays is acknowledge as Science and technology studies (STS), where questions concerning knowledge production and disseminations are discussed (see further Serder & Lundahl 2021). Even if the forerunners such as Fleck and Kuhn made use of history it is not that common today within the tradition of STS to have a historical perspective. In this paper ethnography of historical texts (Nimmo 2011) is used to make an observable laboratory for knowledge production out of the rich archive of the educational scholar Torsten Husén (1916-2009), and then in particular the part of the archive concerning the editing of the International Encyclopaedia of Education (1984, 1995). Encyclopedias often claim to be collections of facts. Facts are usually perceived as naturally given or 'unconstructed by anyone' (Latour & Woolgar 1979). The International Encyclopaedia of Education in particular claimed to be geographically and culturally non-biased – i.e. not ethnocentric. But producing an encyclopaedia is not an independent and objective editorial process. Describing how an encyclopaedia comes into being can clearly be seen as an investigation of a very specific social knowledge practice, that is biased and circumstantial while at the same time claiming to be objective and permanent (Primus & Lundahl 2020). The chapter builds on an analysis of over 4000 pages of correspondence concerning the management and editorial process for the two editions of IEE. It will be described how this data illuminates different processes of editing and publishing knowledge: e.g. administrative and management matters, social aspects (friendship, trusts/distrust in authors, resolving conflicts), content and dissemination matters. 

References 

Latour, B., & Woolgar, S. (1979). Laboratory life: The construction of scientific facts. Princeton University Press.

Nimmo, R. (2011). Actor-network theory and methodology: Social research in a more-than-human world. Methodological Innovations Online, 6(3), 108-119.

Primus, F., & Lundahl, C. (2020). The peripherals at the core of androcentric knowledge production: an analysis of the managing editor’s knowledge work in The International Encyclopedia of Education (1985). Paedagogica Historica, 1-17.

Lundahl, C. & Serder, M (2021). Vetenskapsstudier (STS) och aktör-nätverksteori (ANT). Jober, A. & Serder, M. (2021). Vetenskapliga teorier för lärare. Stockholm: Natur och kultur