Institute for Advanced Study/Princeton University Joint Astrophysics Colloquium

What role does social organization play in the conduct and practice of science? In this talk, I explore how the social and technical organization of scientific collaborations matters for the production of team solidarities, data sharing norms, and scientific findings. To explore this topic, I present empirical data from a comparative ethnographic study of work on two collaborative science teams working with robotic explorers in the solar system. As spacecraft team members present contrasting ways of negotiating for robotic time and resources, their sociotechnical organization is paramount to understanding how decisions are made and how science is done.