Producing Novelty and Securing Credibility: LHC Experiments from the Perspective of Social Studies of Science

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This project is one of six individual projects that cooperate closely within the DFG Research Unit “The Epistemology of the Large Hadron Collider”, established in 2016. The Research Unit’s main objective is to analyse the scientific practice of particle physics experiments that are currently conducted at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, CERN, in Geneva. The Research Unit has forged a unique cooperation between physicists, philosophers, historians, and social scientists with the aim of collectively investigating the epistemology of the LHC. The present project, which investigates LHC experiments from the perspective of social studies of science, is benefiting greatly from this multi- and interdisciplinary setting.This project builds on the thesis that the dramatic changes in particle physics experimentation, toward increasing centralisation, size, and complexity, affect the physicists’ practices, concerning how they produce novelty and how they secure the credibility of novel results. Phase 1 has investigated how physicists classify types of novelty and model complex future measurement processes, and proposed extended notions of “exploratory experimentation” and “epistemic innovation”. It has also analysed how researchers gain credibility and recognition in large research collaborations. Phase 2 will focus on social and material conditions, exploring the role of instrumentation and the potential tension between collective and individual creativity (Subproject 1); and analysing the challenges arising from task differentiation and the discontinuity of workforce, as well as the role of standardised research tools in generating credibility (Subproject 2). A study on internal peer review and on non-discovery will probe how the practices of producing novelty and securing credibility are interconnected. The project employs qualitative methods, in particular semi-structured and open-ended interviews and document analysis. Beyond its expected contributions to better understand the LHC case, the project’s results also promise insight for other fields of study: in providing a fresh look on knowledge generation in extremely complex organisations; on dynamic trust processes and configurations of distributed creativity; and on the multifaceted role of peer review and the importance of non-discovery for knowledge generation.