Geography of scientific knowledge : a proximity approach

The geography of scientific knowledge is defined as the replication process of locally produced knowledge claims. Proximity in social, cognitive, and physical dimensions promotes the sharing of tacit knowledge. Thus, given the complementarity between tacit and codified knowledge, proximity supports the replication of codified knowledge claims. Distinguishing between controversial and uncontroversial contexts, one can understand the sociology of science as explaining the behaviour of scientists from their proximity to other scientists, and the sociology of scientific knowledge as describing the processes that constitute the proximity between scientists