Scientific knowledge in the age of computation: Explicated, computable and manageable?

Abstract

We have two theses about scientific knowledge in the age of computation. Our general claim is that scientific Knowledge Management practices emerge as second-order practices whose aim is to systematically collect, take care of and mobilise first-hand disciplinary knowledge and data. Our specific thesis is that knowledge management practices are transforming biological research in at least three ways. We argue that scientific Knowledge Management a. operates with founded concepts of biological knowledge as explicated and computable, b. enables new outputs and ways of knowing within biology, and c. risks enforcing objectivist epistemologies of knowledge as some one objective thing.