Tracing Technoscientific Collectives in Synthetic Biology: Interdisciplines and Communities of Knowledge Application

Abstract

AbstractThe relevance of collectives for scientific research has long been a matter of debate among sociologists of science and STS scholars. In this article, I revisit the notion of scientific communities from the perspective of practices in technoscientific fields of research. The case I focus on is synthetic biology, a field of research characterised by introducing engineering principles to biology. Drawing from field observations, a discussion of community concepts in sociological literature and interview data, I argue that concepts of community in the technosciences oversimplify the aspects and types of collectives that come to matter in research practices. The case of synthetic biology suggests that, when thinking about technoscientific communities, we have to consider aspects of research practices that point beyond knowledge production. To address this issue, I propose the notion of communities of knowledge application, which helps to reflect current trends in technoscientific research and research governance. Both contexts of knowledge production and contexts of knowledge application should be taken into account in an analysis of technoscientific communities.