REPRESENTATIONS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN DISCIPLINARY DEVELOPMENT- DISAPPEARING PLANTS AND INVISIBLE NETWORKS

This article describes developments in the use of information technolo gy (IT) in the biological discipline of taxonomy, using both a histori cal overview and a detailed case study of a particular information sys tems project. Taxonomy has experienced problems with both its scientif ic legitimacy and its utility to other biologists. IT has been introdu ced into the discipline in response to these perceived problems. The i nformation systems project described here served as a means of managin g the tensions between scientific legitimacy and utility. It is argued that this project represents an example of the use of a technological development in an attempt to re-engineer a discipline. The developmen t of the information system is analyzed as an attempt to develop a sci entific instrument that will embody a particular model of the discipli ne. The concerns of taxonomy with status and legitimacy make it approp riate that this new technology should be introduced at the interface b etween the discipline and the rest of biology as a means of disseminat ing results, and thus come to represent the discipline and the plants described to outsiders, just as the system represents outsiders to tax onomists.