The Tropical Forest as a Boundary Object: An Ethnography of Multiple Collectives and Social Worlds

作为边界对象的热带森林：多个集体和社会世界的民族志

• 批准号: 1010605
• 负责人: Geoffrey Bowker
• 金额: $ 2.27万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-11-01 至 2010-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1010605&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Tropical; Forest; Boundary; Object; Ethnography

This postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Science and Society Program and the Biology Directorate supports advanced training for Eben Kirksey under Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star at Santa Clara University and ethnographic research at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Advanced tutorial training is received in five specific science studies literatures: interessement, social worlds, instrumentation, biodiversity, and infrastructure. The location of the training in northern California affords access to a broader science studies network, enabling the co-PI to stay abreast of cutting-edge scholarship by following a number of speaker series at the multiple campuses in the region.At the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) an array of scientific instruments and everyday technologies have been brought together to make plants, animals, and microbes relevant to human concerns. The ethnography involves study of the multiple scientific projects that coexist at STRI. This ethnography of a place - the rainforest of central Panama - explores the overlapping social worlds of scientists, parataxonomists, eco-tourists, forest rangers (guardabosques), and Panamanian farmers. Conventional ethnographic methods of participant observation and tape-recorded interviews are used at multiple locations in Panama. The projects at STRI focus on the forest of central Panama which may be viewed as a "boundary object" that unites multiple social worlds. Boundary objects are meaningful to several intersecting social worlds. Objects come to form a common boundary between multiple worlds by inhabiting them all simultaneously. These objects retain traces of multiple viewpoints and satisfy potentially conflicting sets of concerns. Entrepreneurs bridge different social worlds by bringing agents into collectives. These collectives, oriented around focal species or theoretical problems, assemble broad coalitions of allies. The research project seeks out new empirical evidence to illustrate the dynamics of power at work when multiple collectives and social worlds interact.The findings are communicated to broad audiences through an academic book length manuscript and articles in the popular media. The PI and co-PI plan a symposium on biodiversity in the Americas and a team-taught undergraduate science studies course.

由科学与社会计划和生物学局资助的这项博士后奖学金支持埃本·柯克西（Eben Kirksey）的高级培训，在杰弗里·鲍克（Geoffrey Bowker）和圣塔克拉拉大学（Santa Clara University）的杰弗里·鲍克（Geoffrey Bowker）和苏珊·利·斯特（Susan Leigh Star）和巴拿马史密森尼热带研究所的民族志研究中。 高级教程培训是在五种特定的科学研究文献中接受的：互动，社会世界，仪器，生物多样性和基础设施。 北加州培训的位置可访问更广泛的科学研究网络，使Co-Pi能够在该地区的多个校园中跟随许多演讲者系列。研究所（Stri）一系列科学仪器和日常技术已经汇集在一起​​，使植物，动物和微生物与人类关注有关。 民族志涉及研究Stri共存的多个科学项目。 这个地方的民族志 - 巴拿马中部的雨林 - 探讨了科学家，副学家，生态旅游者，森林游骑兵（Guardabosques）和Panamanian农民的重叠社会世界。 参与者观察和磁带录制的访谈的常规人种学方法在巴拿马的多个地点使用。 Stri的项目集中于巴拿马中部森林，该森林可能被视为将多个社会世界团结起来的“边界对象”。 边界对象对几个相交的社会世界有意义。 物体通过同时居住在多个世界之间就形成了一个共同的边界。 这些对象保留了多种观点的痕迹，并满足了潜在的相互冲突的关注点。 企业家通过将代理商带入集体来弥合不同的社会世界。 这些集体围绕焦点物种或理论问题，组成了盟友的广泛联盟。 该研究项目寻求新的经验证据，以说明当多个集体和社会世界相互作用时，工作动力的动态。 PI和CO-PI计划了美洲生物多样性的研讨会和一支教授的本科科学研究课程。