Renovating the Theatre of Persuasion. ManyLabs as Collaborative Prototypes for the Production of Credible Knowledge

Abstract

In response to various perceived crises in science, changes to the organization, conduct and publication of science have been proposed and implemented under the label of ‘reform’. This paper dives into the new collaborative form of the ManyX study and how it changes researchers’ agency, engagement with and articulation of their objects of study. More concretely, ManyX consortia display strict and pervasive formalization of science, which includes bureaucratization, standardization and governance and they pursue equally strict procedural hygiene. These formalizations and hygienic labors redraw the boundaries between high and low-status scientific labor, and what constitutes reliable knowledge. Drawing from literature on virtual witnessing and thought collectives, I argue that ManyX approaches can be understood as prototypes of institutionalized scientific reform, and that they contribute to alternative processes through which researchers persuade one another, while shaping the distribution of agency between those at the relative cores and peripheries of scientific reform.