Taking from this idea of lab studies as 'change', Knorr Cetina's crucial thesis is that there a shift from "the context of justification" to "the context of discovery" which lab studies is emblematic of. Through this Knorr Cetina differentiates lab studies from the study of experiments, which was the main focus in the ''context of justification". Knorr Cetina treats this change as both a drawing of attention to aspects of knowledge hitherto overlooked, and as redrawing of as knowledge convicted and created.
What is key here is that lab studies offer key methodologies that make and sustain such a shift in understanding. Given that this is a chapter introducing lab studies, the method is to trace these methodological features of lab studies systematically and each features epistemic or ontological implications on knowledge. What is of note here is that the lab is a condition of scientific knowledge production and is thus more than the operation principles of an experiment. Thus 'lab' is as much a toll of lab studies as it is the title object.
