The making of measurement: Editors' introduction

This special issue consists of selected papers arising from the interdisciplinary conference “The Making of Measurement” held at the University of Cambridge on 23-24 July 2015. In this introduction, we seek ways to further productive interactions among historical, philosophical, and sociological approaches to the study of measurement without attempting to lay out a prescriptive program for a field of “measurement studies.” We ask where science studies has led us, and answer: from the function to the making of measurement. We discuss whether there is anything privileged or exemplary about physical measurement, and alight upon models and metrology, two particular focuses of enquiry that emerge from our selection of papers. Those papers with a historical dimension complement an already well-developed body of historiography applied to measurement and metrology.