Publication details
Where does the “God” within the “God particle” come from? Cultural sociological analysis of the Higgs boson research
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| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
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| Citation | |
| Description | In my paper I examine activities and speeches included within the meaning-making process of the quantum physics research at CERN, Geneva. A particular focus will be put on the research of the Higgs boson, the so called “hunt for the God particle”. The “God particle” is a symbolic entity connected to an extensive spectrum of meanings and audiences. The notion of “God” does not stick here with the usual conception of religious beliefs, however, it somehow connotes beliefs and religion. Rather than to a particular institution of a church, it refers to the idea of religion as something more general. Something that is above us, that transcends our directly experienced reality, something that is even enigmatic and mysterious. Here, the notion of “God” is grounded in the way in which certain actors relate to the “God particle”, respectively the Higgs boson, in which they make it meaningful for themselves. In order to investigate various aspects of this relation, I employ the method of structural hermeneutics as proposed in the Strong Program of Cultural Sociology. To provide a convincing interpretation, I have been working with various types of resources, including public media outputs, official scientific statements, historical resources, scientific presentations, public courses, TV shows, and also popular culture artifacts. The paper is a contribution to the discussion on so-called “modern disenchantment” proposed by Max Weber. The case of the “God particle” is a persuasive example that regardless its “rational” and “mechanical” character, modern science is enchanted in its very core. |