Abstract

Regulatory Knowledge and Regulatory Concepts. The article argues for a historical understanding of a specific form of knowledge which is attached to the practices of regulatory science: regulatory knowledge. By definition, regulatory science deals with problems that are thought of not belonging to the normal spectrum of scientific work, i. e., they are ‘trans‐scientific’. In order to bridge science and other social spheres, regulatory science and regulatory knowledge carry certain features deemed to fulfil this task. Using Foucault's concept of governmentality and newer attempts of the sociology of knowledge, the article proposes the study of regulatory concepts as an avenue to explore the history of regulatory knowledge. As a case, the regulation by boundary values of chemicals at the work place in the Federal Republic of Germany is presented. The main advantage of boundary values as a regulatory concept is, arguably, their capacity to carry the necessary ambiguity for connecting different social spheres and for fulfilling specific functions in each social system, respectively. In this respect, the notion of regulatory concept is borrowed from the uses of boundary concepts and boundary objects in science studies.