Control, more control: Studying Practical Forms of Scientific Rationality in a Bulgarian Holographic Laboratory

Abstract

This paper is concerned with the social embeddings of experiment and practical forms of rationality as they are revealed through the case study of holographic research in Bulgaria. The paper consists of three parts: the first, introductory part, and the second part trace the political and economic environment in which holography as a particular research field has developed in Bulgaria. The third part follows the scientists inside their laboratory. It reveals what was at stake in their scientific work and it sheds light on how they proceeded to catch it. Based on in-depth interviews with scientists, participant observation and analysis of literature, the author examines the establishment of an “experimental situation” as a particular kind of balance between the preset, imposed and uncontrolled, on the one hand, and the manipulable and controllable, on the other. Tracing the course of holographic research, a peculiar functional difference between theory and experiment is revealed. The “mystery” of their int...