Cultures of Technoscience: A Study of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Mri) Research in the United States and India
Prasad, Amit
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https://hdl.handle.net/2142/86206
Description
Title
Cultures of Technoscience: A Study of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Mri) Research in the United States and India
Author(s)
Prasad, Amit
Issue Date
2004
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Pickering, Andrew
Department of Study
Sociology
Discipline
Sociology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Sociology, General
Language
eng
Abstract
A starting point for this study is that even though the relationship is asymmetrical, techno-scientific research in and between non-western and western nations cannot be understood through simple conceptual dichotomies of center/periphery, dominant/dominated, or globalism/localism. The development of MRI, since its birth in the early 1970s, has been located within a transnational network. This network has been constituted by a fairly flexible flow of scientists, knowledge, and artifacts across national boundaries. However, relationships between research groups based in different nations are asymmetrical and their location critically affects their research. Thus, even though many of the significant MRI research and development did not even take place in the US in the 1970s, it became a major center of MRI research because of its socio-technical network, which allowed possibilities for socio-technical tuning. On the other hand, MRI related research in India existed much before first MRIs were imported to clinics in India in the second half of the 1980s. Yet the trajectories of these researches remained disconnected and did not lead to any significant development of the MRI technology. This study shows that the culture(s) and epistemic trajectories of techno-sciences are embedded within and dialectically related to historically specific practices and discourses, which exist and operate within wider global and local/national socio-technical networks.
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