Back to Search
Start Over
From Value to Valuation: Pragmatist and Hermeneutic Orientations for Assessing Science on the International Space Station.
- Source :
-
American Sociologist . Dec2021, Vol. 52 Issue 4, p671-701. 31p. - Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Based on a study of the International Space Station (ISS), this paper argues that – as a set of orientations for sociological inquiry – pragmatism and hermeneutics are confluent frameworks to examine valuation as a social process. This confluence is grounded on their common attunement to valuing as a problematic and relational process, their equally common updates with theories of institutions, and a further conceptual development regarding the temporalities of valuation. I advance the argument in four steps. First, looking at how the question about the "scientific value" of the ISS is far from settled, I show how valuation is always about something considered problematic and indeterminate. Second, characterizing the ISS at the intersection of different criteria of assessment, I stress the nature of valuation as a fundamentally perspectival and interpretive process, and show how a hermeneutic approach can complement some of the limitations of pragmatism in this regard. Third, I look at the question of institutions considering how some modes of assessment sediment more successfully than others. Fourth, I argue that, while providing insights towards it, pragmatist and hermeneutic approaches to valuation have not fully grasped its temporal nature as a process, and outline ways to open this line of inquiry. I conclude with some ideas for studies in sociology of science to re-entangle detailed case studies of scientific practice with the study of how institutions make claims of worth about the nature of science, I propose ways to extend these arguments to other studies of what I call iridescent institutions, and I make some considerations about our stance as sociologists in these valuation disputes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- *VALUATION
*HERMENEUTICS
*PRAGMATISM
*SOCIOLOGY
*SCIENCE
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00031232
- Volume :
- 52
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- American Sociologist
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 153786419
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s12108-021-09515-y