The cultures of science quadrant : scientific representations, practices and conventions in the East and West

Abstract

This paper considers the notions of common sense and interobjectivity to articulate an understanding of how different cultural realities give rise to different construals of scientific phenomena across distinct cultures. Our main focus in this paper is on the social sciences. We propose a quadrant of different cultural–scientific stances from which the study of social phenomena is possible, based on the emic–etic dimension pertaining to the study of culture from contrasting perspectives. Although the emic–etic distinction is normally applied in fields within the science of culture, it is proposed here that the distinction is in some ways germane to scientific practice in general, making it amenable for use in a culture of science (CoS) programme. The four perspectives that emerge from the quadrant are illustrated using exemplars. Different aspects of CoS—that is, scientific practice, scientific conventions and representations of science—are then discussed in further detail, including in two tables illustrating points of convergence and divergence between the East and West when it comes to different aspects of CoS.