SCIENTIFIC COMMUNICATION, INNOVATION NETWORKS AND ORGANIZATION STRUCTURES

This article examines changes in the relation between the organization of social power, the production of advanced scientific knowledge, and the position of scientific and technical personnel, from an institutionalist perspective. This is undertaken largely, but not exclusively, by mapping an exemplar of such inter-institutional and intra-disciplinary changes, i.e. the transformation in high-energy physics associated with the development of the atomic bomb. The contrast between the social imperatives of dominant sponsoring institutions and the organizational preconditions for cognitive efficacy is seen as regulated through the emergence of innovation networks. The article concludes with a brief consideration of the relation between the strategies of knowledge workers and the structure of such networks.