Organizing Simulation Code Collectives

Abstract

This article examines the ways researchers develop and use computer programs for numerical simulations and the different social relationships that are involved in creating the frames for these activities. On the basis of ethnographic case studies of numerical simulation practice in astrophysics, oceanography, and meteorology, including climate modelling, the present article discusses how work with simulation codes can be discussed by means of a typology of simulation code collectives. This typology provides a systematic account of how a particular and increasingly important form of software development and use takes place in science. It also contributes to current discussions on the relation between producers and users of technology by suggesting that the defi nition of them as empirical categories can be understood through the social relationships that the people (simulationists) working with them are embedded in.