Beamtimes and Lifetimes

Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High Energy Physicists is a book by Sharon Traweek on cultural anthropology and the sociology of science among people in the field of particle physics. It is an ethnography of high energy physicists that chronicles the laboratories, career paths, and values of a community of scientists based on her observations at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in California, US, and KEK High Energy Accelerator Research Organization in Japan.

Various reviewers profiled the book.

Ethnography and sociology of science

Beamtimes and Lifetimes represents a turn of sociologists and anthropologists to use the tools of their discipline toward the powerful within modern culture rather than colonized cultures. It aims to broaden the understanding provided by philosophy and intellectual history which traditionally focused on the rational components of knowledge making. Anthropologists aim to enrich an understanding of science by presenting science as an activity embedded in culture, a domain rich in human practice and expression. In contrast to a view of science as a wholly rational pursuit, laboratory studies like Traweek's detail a process of constructing knowledge by situating it as products of local practices and cultural contingencies.

By illustrating strategies of individuals, groups, and institutions pursuing science goals, Traweek enriches an understanding of how science is practiced, extending beyond the laws of nature. Beamtimes and Lifetimes describes ways physicists create networks, the interpersonal connections through which preprints and informal communication are diffused, graduate students exchanged, and discussions about findings and goals are channeled. Creating these contacts and networks, that can then be tapped for opportunities, information, and support for ideas, is conceptualized by sociologists as a process of developing and leveraging social capital.