Science, Technology & Human Values

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Click here for more information

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (OnlineFirst[PDF])
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
0162243907306188v1
32/6/672    most recent
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Beaulieu, A. J.
Right arrow Articles by Wouters, P.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
First published on September 27, 2007, doi:10.1177/0162243907306188

Science, Technology & Human Values 2007;32:672.

A more recent version of this article appeared on November 1, 2007
 © 2007 SAGE Publications

Article

Not Another Case Study: A Middle-Range Interrogation of Ethnographic Case Studies in the Exploration of E-science

Anne J. Beaulieu*, Andrea Scharnhorst, and Paul Wouters

Virtual Knowledge Studio for the Humanities and Social Science

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: anne.beaulieu{at}vks.knaw.nl.


  Abstract
This article addresses the need to problematize "cases" in science and technology studies (STS) work, as a middle-range theory issue. The focus is not on any one case study per se, but on why case studies exist and endure in STS. Case studies are part of a specific problematization in the field. We therefore explore relations between motivation for the use of cases (especially ethnographic ones), their constitution, and ways they can be invoked to make particular kinds of arguments in STS. We set out to examine the case as an object that links together research practices, intellectual debates, and programmatic concerns in our own work. Based on our experiences and on this reflection on the links between cases and questions in STS, we propose a number of case-making strategies that shift and enrich the deployment of ethnographic cases as an epistemic tool in STS.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?