Abstract
Synthesis centers, which catalyze and host working groups, are an innovative form of scientific organization that promotes the integration of scientific diversity and its engagement with real-world problems. Placed in historical perspective, such centers are examples of an ongoing process of renewal in the organizational and institutional arrangements of science, and they have consequences for the character and effects of scientific knowledge. We describe and analyze how intellectual and institutional innovations emerge and are entwined within such centers, then draw upon ideas from science studies, small group dynamics, and the group creativity and interdisciplinarity literatures to identify the patterns and processes of social interaction responsible for the centers’ performance.