Bacterial cultures: ontologies of bacteria and engineering expertise at the nexus of synthetic biology and water services
Bacterial cultures: ontologies of bacteria and engineering expertise at the nexus of synthetic biology and water services
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DOI：
10.1080/19378629.2013.766198
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发表时间：
2013-04-01
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Molyneux-Hodgson, Susan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Balmer, Andrew S.;Molyneux-Hodgson, Susan
在本文中，我们报告了两年多来开发的人种学工作，作为社会科学家在合成生物学（SB）项目中工作，该项目旨在使用工程细菌作为水工业问题的解决方案。我们的工程师同事认为工业界和公众的无知会阻碍他们的创新，他们要求我们帮助解决创新的障碍。而不是围绕无知的方向'，我们选择探索不同的本体论的细菌，采用了各种做法的许多网站在该项目中。我们描述了我们在微生物实验室的观察，并将其与废水处理设施进行比较。实验室的工程师们认为细菌是可控的，但也是脆弱的，因此他们操纵和保护细菌的能力在他们的专业知识中变得很重要。相比之下，供水设施的工程师知道细菌是危险的，但他们在保护自己的身体方面变得熟练，通过免疫学叙述来理解它们与细菌的关系，并通过嗅觉认识论来声称专业知识。总的来说，我们的结论是工程师和细菌的本体是相互关联的，通过特定的上下文的做法。最后，我们认为，这个帐户是指导当前的政策和参与讨论SB。
In this paper we report on ethnographic work developed over two years, working as social scientists within a project on synthetic biology (SB), which aimed to use engineered bacteria as solutions to water industry problems. We were asked to help solve the barrier to innovation' by our engineering colleagues who believed that industrial and public ignorance would block their innovations. Instead of orienting around ignorance' we chose to explore the different ontologies of bacteria that were adopted in the various practices of the many sites involved in the project. We describe our observations in microbiological laboratories and compare them to a waste water treatment facility. Engineers in the lab understand bacteria as controllable but also vulnerable, thus their ability to manipulate and protect bacteria becomes important in their claims to expertise. In contrast, engineers in the water facility understand bacteria as dangerous, but they become skilled in protecting their bodies, make sense of their relation to bacteria through immunological narratives and claim expertise through an olfactory epistemology. Overall, we conclude that the ontologies of engineer' and bacteria' are interrelated through context-specific practices. Finally, we argue that this account is instructive for current policy and engagement discussions around SB.