Soil microbial ecology is a relatively young research field that became established around the middle of the 20th century and has grown considerably since then. We analyze two epistemic re-orientations in the field, asking how possibilities for creating do-able problems within current conditions of research governance and researchers' collective sense-making about new, more desirable modes of research were intertwined in these developments. We show that a first re-orientation towards molecular omics studies was comparably straightforward to bring about, because it allowed researchers to gain resources for their work and to build careers-in other words, to create do-able problems. Yet, over time this mode of research developed into a scientific bandwagon from which researchers found it difficult to depart, even as they considered this kind of work as producing mostly descriptive studies rather than exploring interesting and important ecological questions. Researchers currently wish to re-orient their field again, towards a new mode of conducting 'well-rounded' interdisciplinary and ecologically-relevant studies. This re-orientation is, however, not easy to put into practice. In contrast to omics studies, this new mode of research does not easily enable the creation of do-able problems for two reasons. First, it is not as readily 'packaged' and hence more difficult to align with institutional and funding frameworks as well as with demands for productivity and career building. Second, while the first re-orientation was part of a broader exciting bandwagon across the life sciences and promised apparent discoveries, the current re-orientation goes along with a different sense of novelty, exploring complex environmental relations and building an understanding at the intersection of disciplines, instead of pushing a clearly circumscribed frontier. Ultimately, our analysis raises questions about whether current conditions of research governance structurally privilege particular kinds of scientific re-orientation over others.

中文翻译：

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从“列出清单”到进行“全面”研究：土壤微生物生态学的认知重新定位。


土壤微生物生态学是一个相对年轻的研究领域，大约在 20 世纪中叶建立，此后得到了长足的发展。我们分析了该领域的两个认知重新定位，询问在当前研究治理条件下创造可行问题的可能性以及研究人员对新的、更理想的研究模式的集体意义建构如何在这些发展中交织在一起。我们表明，分子组学研究的首次重新定位相对容易实现，因为它使研究人员能够为其工作获得资源并建立职业生涯，换句话说，创造可行的问题。然而，随着时间的推移，这种研究模式发展成为一种科学潮流，研究人员发现很难摆脱这种潮流，尽管他们认为这种工作主要是进行描述性研究，而不是探索有趣和重要的生态问题。研究人员目前希望再次重新调整他们的领域，转向一种进行“全面”跨学科和生态相关研究的新模式。然而，这种重新定位实施起来并不容易。与组学研究相比，这种新的研究模式不容易产生可行的问题，原因有二。首先，它不那么容易“打包”，因此更难以与机构和资金框架以及生产力和职业建设的需求保持一致。 其次，虽然第一次重新定位是整个生命科学领域更广泛、令人兴奋的潮流的一部分，并承诺会有明显的发现，但当前的重新定位伴随着不同的新颖感，探索复杂的环境关系并在交叉点上建立理解。纪律，而不是突破明确界限。最终，我们的分析提出了这样的问题：当前的研究治理状况是否在结构上优先于其他类型的科学重新定位。