Cultural work place patterns in Academia

Abstract

In Science and Technology Studies (STS) the emergence of scientific knowledge has been studied from a wealth of creative angles. One aspect which has been left relatively unexplored is how universities as work places in- and exclude their members, and how these processes are related to culture. In this article we shall discuss how a focus on cultural clusters of meaning-making practices in scientific work places at universities in different European countries open up for understanding cultural differences in what male and female scientists are interested in and how they wish their knowledge to be acquired and acknowledged. We argue that different work place cultures in- and exclude members in accordance with their different acknowledgements of creative acts, risk-taking, ‘useful science’ and competition. Moreover, these patterns seem to be connected with a gendered quest for knowledge.