Handbook come forme di consolidamento disciplinare. Il caso dei Science and Technology Studies

The aim of this essay is to investigate the role of the cultural object «handbook» in contemporary scientific field. What are the specificities of the handbooks with respect to other scientific cultural objects like conferences, papers, lessons, readers, textbooks, collections of essays etc.? Are there some correlation between this kind of cultural object and the intellectual consolidation of the related academic field? In the following text these questions will be investigated focusing on the academic global field of Science and Technology Studies (STS). First, the research outlines the social an intellectual condition of this kind of publications. Second, the socio-historical analysis of the handbook's content highlights the link between their internal transformations and the consolidation process of STS's disciplinary boundaries.