Accountin& Organizations and Socieq),Vol. 14, No. 3,pp.271-JOl, l9a9 Printed in Great Britain DRAMATIS PERSONAE Researcbers One, Ttoo and Tbree: Three sociologists of science who are researching into the practical application of health economics. A Tape-recorder: A small portable recorder (perhaps a Sony TCM 9 ) which plays tapes of a health economist being interviewed by sociologists. A Video-recorder: A \rHS recorder with monitor which plays tapesof health economists teaching clinicians health economics at a special week- end course. Katbleen: A health economist working within the NHS. Don: A health economist working in a university applied research unit. Iden Wickings: The Director of the King's Fund CASPE research unit. Throughout the play the words of the fictional Researchers (One, Two and Three) have been made up except in Act IV where they are drawn o36r-36a2/a9 $3.00+.OO Pergamon Press plc from an interview transcript. The speeches ofall other characters (except the Tape-recorder in Act tV) are taken verbatim from transcripts and texts collected by the authors in the course of their research in the sociology of health econ- omics. ACT I: AN IDEA IS BORN IN A LONDON CAFE It is about one year into the research proiect on the extension of economic reasoninginto the area of health care. Two of the researchers are seatedin a cafe in London discussing, over a cup of tea, how the profect is going. They have just carried out an interview with a health economist who works at the nearby King's Fund Hospital Trust. There is a tape-recorder on the table. As the researchers talk they play back parts of the interview they have iust recorded. Researcber One: WelI that seemed to go okay, it CLINICAL BUDGETING:EXPERIMENTATION IN THE SOCIALSCIENCES: A DRAMA IN FTVE ACTS* T. PINCH, M. MULKAY and M. ASHMORE Department of Sociologt, Uniuersity of York Abstract Clinical budgeting systems are increasingly being introduced into the British National Health Service. This paper examines in some detail the testing of one particular budgeting system. It discusses the aims, execution and cvaluation of the test. The paper is written as a play partly for reasons of clarity and entertainment but also and, more seriously. to rcflect recent concerns in the sociology of scientific knowledge whereby attention is drawn to the parallels between analysts' and participants' attempts to render a definitive view ofthe social world. 'The play is based on a widcr research proiect that is concerned with the difficulties and dilemmas that health economists face in the practical application of their knowledgc, a full rcport of which will appear in Ashmore et al. (1989). we would like to thank Iden rWickings for his time and for commenting on an earlier draft. The rescarch was funded by the ESRC (grant A3325OOO4)under its "Science Studies and Science Policy" initiative, phase one. 271