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Social Studies of Science
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Standardized Data and Singular Situations

Petter G. Almklov

NTNU, Samfunnsforskning AS, Studio Apertura, Dragvoll Gaard, Vaaningshuset, 7491 Trondheim, Norway, pettera{at}svt.ntnu.no

Today a key feature of every technological organization is the abundance and pivotal role of standardized data sets. This paper discusses the interplay between standardized semantic knowledge representations and situated work on a knowledge intensive workplace. Drawing upon anthropological fieldwork with geologists and engineers in the `subsurface' department of an oil company, this paper discusses how an oil reservoir is represented with standardized semantic entities, and how such representations are used when workers try to make sense of the reservoir. The terms decontextualization and recontextualization are used to address and highlight the work that is involved in transporting meaning out of and into different contexts. Examples are given on how the subsurface personnel try to make sense of the oil reservoir through data: creatively using data to explore, speculate and guess about the subsurface. Through these examples, the paper explores the integrated relationship between the minds trying to understand the reservoir and the symbolic tools they have available, outlining some of the experience-based embodied skills that are involved in this work. It is argued that a key skill in this workplace is handling the translations between the standardized and singular.

Key Words: data interpretation • decontextualization • immutable mobiles • petroleum geology • recontextualization • representation in applied science

Social Studies of Science, Vol. 38, No. 6, 873-897 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0306312708098606
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