Forms of division of scientific labour and intellectual convergence. The research-technology movement.

Science and technology are characterized by considerable intellectual and i nstitutional fragmentation - a product of unceasing specialization. In this article T. Shinn shows how a little studied transverse science and technol ogy community, the research-technology movement, promotes much less than pr agmatic-universality much greater than. The multi purpose and generalist in struments generated by research-technology foster a technical lingua-franca in academia, industry, state technical services, the military and so forth . Research-technology also facilitates cognitive and institutional boarder crossings between disciplines and professional spheres. Shinn argues that d ivisions of labor in science and engineering are not detrimental to univers ality but are instead basic to its establishment. Demarcated niche audience s independently test and validate ideas and usage. Those which survive dive rse and locally imposed testing are ultimately held in common by all groups , thereby becoming an universally accepted consensual stock of knowledge.