ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Applying Epidemiological Reasoning to Epistemic Dissent in Large-Scale Scientific Collaborations

• In Event: Epidemiology Unbound 3

English Abstract

Scientific knowledge is increasingly produced in large-scale multidisciplinary collaborations. Such large-team collaborations are not merely aggregates of individuals but collective epistemic agents whose members jointly produce scientific knowledge. While disagreement and dissent are often regarded as drivers of scientific progress, they can become corrosive in highly interdependent collaborations, where epistemic stability and trust are key for coordinated inquiry. This paper examines how epidemiological reasoning can provide a framework for understanding and managing dissent in large-team scientific collaborations. Instead of treating dissent as a localised problem attributable to individual agents who threaten to disrupt collective work, an epidemiological approach reframes dissent as a population-level phenomenon that emerges in relation to structural conditions and varying forms of vulnerability in a collaboration. This shift allows for a more processual understanding of dissent that draws on concepts such as risk factors, protective factors, and modes of transmission. By adapting epidemiological principles, it becomes possible to identify early signs of emerging dissent, assess its potential for “spread,” and develop strategies for constructive engagement before conflicts escalate. It also offers a conceptual lens for mapping how dissent circulates, when it constitutes legitimate critique, and when it risks undermining collective epistemic functioning. The paper is not an ethnographic study but a theoretical and analytical extension of epidemiological thinking to the dynamics of scientific collaboration. It argues that understanding dissent through epidemiology provides new tools for analysing vulnerabilities of large-scale collective knowledge production and fostering more resilient collaborative practices.

Author

• Paula Muhr, Brand University of Applied Sciences