ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses some recent sociological work on the social and cognitive dimensions of the scientific research community. It shows that the classic portrayal of the scientific ethos is inadequate and that an alternative interpretation can be formulated which is more consistent with the available evidence and which lends support to the account of scientific knowledge. The chapter examines a number of recent case studies of scientific development which draw attention to features quite unlike those assumed in orthodox sociological analysis and much closer to the conclusions of the new philosophy of science. It identifies the central implication of the path-breaking sociological studies of the production of scientific knowledge and to show that it is supported by the revised analysis of social norms in science. A rather better general formulation would be that scientific knowledge is established by processes of negotiation, that is, by the interpretation of cultural resources in the course of social interaction.
