Subjectivity, governance, and changing conditions of knowledge production in the life sciences

Abstract

Knowledge producers are ascribed a key role for societal development today, as they produce a key resource for knowledge-based societies. Even as the institutional, social, and cultural environments of research change (c.f. “evaluation society,” “academic capitalism”), we know surprisingly little about how this results in different research practices and knowledge. Building on experiences of studying research cultures in the life sciences, I argue in this paper that by studying researchers’ subjectification, we learn how changing conditions are actually translated into a transformation of research processes and about the role of researchers as active agents in this transformation. Put differently, I investigate how we can study subjectification as a locus of change in research cultures. I discuss possible methodological cornerstones of using subjectification as conceptual approach for studying research cultures. Along some analytical extracts, I further demonstrate how this enables us to see tacit forms of governance in cultures of knowledge production.