Scientific Culture in the ‘Other’ Theater of ‘Modern Science’

Abstract

Debate over ‘scientific culture’ is often over-determined by universalistic and Eurocentric constructions of ‘modern science’. In this paper I have attempted to ground this debate through an analysis of the culture of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) research in India. My analysis is based upon observations of and interviews with scientists working in the MRI and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) laboratories and government officials who regulate techno-scientific research in India. I argue that even though some common characteristics of scientific practices in India are discernible, we cannot attribute them to ahistorical cognitive or social aspects of the Indian society. We also cannot argue that such practices exist because of the absence of a ‘scientific community’, whose members share ‘scientific values’. I draw on empirical studies of scientific knowledge and practice, as well as postcolonial studies, to show how particular practices with MRI and NMR in India, which have to do with scientific collaboration and patenting, make perfect sense if they are seen in relation to global and national networks of power and administration. I argue that scientific cultures are dialectically related to networks of regulatory and laboratory practices, and that they change as the networks change, as we are beginning to witness in India.