Some Sociological Consequences of High-Energy Physicists’ Development of The Standard Model (Chapter 21, by Mark Bodnarczuk)
“In a scientific discipline that went from experiments with less electronics than a videocassette recorder to 105 channels, and from collaborations with 5‑10 members to 300 during the years 1964‑1979, the notion of what high‑energy physics is, or what constitutes being a high‑energy physicist, cannot be viewed simply as an immutable category that is ‘out there’ – that remains fixed despite these and other developments. What high energy physics is as a discipline and what it means to be a high‑energy physicist are renegotiated by participants relative to the experimental and theoretical practices of the field at any given time. In this article I explore some of the sociological consequences of the decisions made by high‑energy physicists as they constructed the edifice that has come to be known as the Standard Model.”