This is an unusual text to be offered as a contribution to the sociology of science. Let me provide a few words explaining why it takes the form of a script for a one-act play rather than that of a conventional research paper.' I decided to write a play, in the first place, because I wanted to bring the scientists, from whom we obtain our knowledge about science, into my secondary, sociological discourse as active participants. In the sociological research literature generally, participants tend to appear as static, unidimensional figures. They speak to us in isolated fragments, seldom engaged actively in the creation of meaning and seldom, if ever, participating in creative dialogue with their puppet-masters, the sociological analysts. Thus, we obtain little awareness, from the quotations or tabulated responses presented in research reports, of actors' crucial ability to create and continually recreate the meanings of their own and others' actions through the generative use of the interpretative resources of their culture. In this text, I have tried to present scientists' own words in a way which enables participants (with my help) to reply to and challenge some of the accounts of scientific action that have appeared in the recent sociological literature. In the sociology of science, hesitant moves have already begun to be made, not only towards presenting participants as active creators of meaning, but also towards recognizing that participants can
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Jan 1, 1996
Moses Znaimer 
Open Access
