Science research regimes as architectures of knowledge in context: A ‘longue durée’ comparative historical sociology of structures and dynamics in science

Abstract

The purpose of this historical-sociological study is to identify the different intellectual and organizational structures and paths adopted by science over the ages. These forms are what we call science research regimes. Our perspective is simultaneously historical, sociological and comparative. We propose a socio-historical framework that points out transverse structures in science and their changing dynamics, in a ‘longue durée’ perspective. Historical examples of regimes embrace the following regimes: what we term the ‘polycentric research regime’ of the 17th and 18th centuries; the ‘exclusionary research regime’ (disciplinarity) that emerged during the 19th century and persists today; the ‘combinatorial research regime,’ which began around the end of the 19th century; and finally the ‘interstitial research regime’ associated with transverse research- technology, also born in the late 19th century.