Paper short abstract:

In this paper I argue that despite the epistemic significance of the category of time in scientific knowledge production, it has so far almost completely escaped attention of Science & Technology Studies (STS) scholars, and that this unfortunate state of affairs needs to be changed.

Paper long abstract:

Science & Technology Studies (STS) have revolutionized our understanding of science and its day-to-day practice, its relationship to other segments of society, and the nature of knowledge it produces. Through numerous empirical case studies STS have provided us with a detailed picture of the process and situatedness of scientific knowledge production. In this paper I argue, however, that in studying the epistemic role of various variables/parameters that take part in this process, STS scholars have excessively focused on traditional social categories, such as "interests" and "power relations", while the category of time and its epistemic significance almost completely escaped their attention. Since the constitutive role of time in scientific knowledge production - as in any other human activity - is beyond discussion, as I will demonstrate on a few selected studies of scientific practice, I argue for a more systematic and focused STS research on the temporal dimension of science and its epistemic function. Such research would not only yield better understanding of the mechanisms of scientific knowledge production; it could also substantially contribute to our understanding of the diverse temporalities of science and thus might play a crucial "corrective" role in the recent debates on "fast vs. slow" science/academia.