What is the Place of Safety in Science: An Experiment in Group Ethnography

Massachusetts Institute Of Technology, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

SES- 0535780 Susan Silbey MIT A number of early classics in ethnographic sociology were produced by research in teams. With the recent resurgence of interest in ethnographic research, projects are again being conducted in multi-sited teans, although by and large ethnographers still more often go into the field alone. Regardless of whether in teams or alone, some ethnographic scholars continue to press for methodological strategies that allow for the development of sociological claims that are generalizable and propose steps to replicate or return to sites of investigation over time. The study seeks to explore whether the team model of ethnogrpahic fieldwork improves the validity of ethnographic fieldwork. The quasi-experiment will be conducted as a part of an ongoing study of the development of a system for managing environmental, health and hazards in scientific laboratories. The research compares the presence and consequences of a surveillance and audit system in different scientific fields to address questions about the role of law and the processes of organizations and cultural diffusion in varying scientific cultures. The project addresses questions at the interface of the sociology of organizations, science and law. Might the creation of management system specifically designed to accommodate the particular cultures of research laboratories create consistent conformity with enviromental regulations? What is the effect on the relationships within laboratory work groups? If equal employment opportunity law has produced relative homogeneity in personnel practices in American workplaces because the responsible professionals have become astute interpreters of their organizations and imaginative legal innovators, will the introduction of environmental health and safety officers into laboratories produce similar organizational changes? Finally, if the system is introduced under a single risk management mandate with a staff supervised under a single office, how will it be experienced with different laboratories that vary by research methods and departments? Broader Impacts. The quasi-experiment in ethnographic fieldwork provides an opportunity to enhance our understanding of how to create more reliable and valid ethnographies. The research also contributes to knowledge about how to regulate new organizational forms that conduct transactions through intelligent machines, distant connections and virtual worlds.