Resisting or Governing Risk? Professional Struggles and the Regulation of Safe Science

Drawing on a 17-month ethnographic study of a scientific community, I investigate how actors occupying different roles mobilize competing normative templates stemming from professional and legal frameworks in order to craft safe work practices. Institutional theory often assumes that micro-level interactions do not exert a durable influence on macro-level settlements such as professional or institutional boundaries. This case highlights that micro-level contests within a professional community do shift institutional arrangements by allowing powerful professionals to claim authority over rules that would otherwise threaten their autonomy from social demands.