Beyond Big Science in America: The Binding of Inquiry

Abstract

This paper offers an overview of the intellectual and social structure of science in the United States since the mid- 1960s. It argues that new directions for research are increasingly established by factors previously considered `external' to the inquiry process itself. These factors include changes in the ethos of academic science, social reorganization, governmental `megaprojects' and secrecy, and the enlarged dimension encompassed by Price's term `instrumentalism'. Taken together, these factors have restructured the indices of performance for doing science. Inquiry has become increasingly bound to a highly utilitarian conception of knowledge, to institutional goals and politicized reward systems, and to the technological infrastructure. Stylistic changes ensue, relating to how science is done, and to the relationship between theorization and experimentation. Given the altered circumstances for research, productive scientific inquiry at this historical juncture seems to be best fostered in diverse environments where corporate and academic scientists cooperate.