Dissertation Research: Science and Politics in the International Debate over Persistent Organic Pollutants: An Ethnographic Study

联合国环境规划署召集各国政府、政府间机构和非政府组织的代表，就持久性有机污染物(POPs)这一类化学品达成具有约束力的国际协议。这场争论提出了关于科学、政治和社会之间关系的关键问题。遵循Bruno Latour和他的同事介绍的方法，本研究项目调查了以下四个话语社区的非政府组织的科学承诺：氯气行业、国际环境组织、公共卫生组织和土著人民组织。该项目的目的是：1)让每个发表言论的社区了解其对有毒化学品科学的特定观点；2)对每一种科学观点，描述赋予其权威和稳定性的网络；3)对每一种网络，详细说明其中固有的社会关系(例如，不平等的权力关系、压制某些声音和放大其他声音)。本研究采用人种学方法，包括对会议的观察，对与会者的访谈，以及对四个主题非政府组织出版物的文本分析。这一分析将有助于更好地理解关于持久性有机污染物的国际辩论中涉及的各种根本不同的科学观点，以及每种观点所包含的不同自然观。

The United Nations Environment Program has convened representatives of national governments, inter-governmental bodies, and non-governmental organizations(NGOs), to reach a binding international agreement over a class of chemicals, 'persistent organic pollutants'(POPs). This controversy raises crucial issues about the relation between science, politics, and society. Following the methods introduced by Bruno Latour and his colleagues, this dissertation research project investigates the scientific commitments of NGOs from each of the four following discursive communities: the chlorine industry, international environmental groups, public health organizations, and indigenous peoples' organizations. The aim of this project is 1) for each discursive community to understand its particular perspective on the science of toxic chemicals, 2) for each of these scientific perspectives, to describe the network that gives it authority and stability, and 3) for each of these networks, to detail the social relations inherent in it (e.g.,unequal power relations, the dampening of certain voices and amplification of others). This study employs ethnographic methods, including observation of the conferences, interviews with participants, and textual analysis of the publications of the four subject NGOs. This analysis will contribute to a better understanding of the various, fundamentally different scientific perspectives that are engaged within the international debate on POPs, and of the distinct views of nature each contains.