Dissertation Research: Marginality, Crop Genetic Resources Conservation and the Re-establishment of Highland Rice Agriculture Following War in Cambodia

论文研究：柬埔寨战后边缘性、作物遗传资源保护和高原水稻农业的重建

• 批准号: 0522357
• 负责人: Michael Dove
• 金额: $ 0.6万
• 依托单位: Yale University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-01-01 至 2006-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0522357&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Research; Marginality; Crop; Genetic

Project Summary: Dove/Padwe - Invisible ScienceNear the end of a period of protracted armed conflict in Cambodia, in 1986 the International Rice Research Institute initiated a far-reaching and well-funded effort to re-introduce to Cambodian farmers a number of lowland rice varieties that had been lost during the war. At the same time, an analogous process was taking place in the highlands of northeast Cambodia, exchanging seeds and information through transnational social networks, ethnic minority farmers re-introduced numerous crop cultigens to the northeast hills. Yet this effort was largely invisible to outside observers. Drawing on recent approaches in science and technology studies, this proposal argues that the distinction allowing the formal IRRI program to be understood as scientific, while the seemingly informal highland crop-reintroduction program is excluded from that category, is a false one, the product of boundary-making activities. The highland farmers are clearly experts, although uncredentialed ones. Understood as a scientific endeavor, then, the conservation and re-introduction of crop genetic resources in the highlands was mediated by social, political and cultural factors. This research project seeks to understand the exchange of information, seeds and resources characteristic of highland in situ conservation practices. Specifically, 1) how do highland farmers produce knowledge about crop varieties? 2) how is information and plant genetic material exchanged? how do seed exchange networks function, and what other forms of information or exchange travel along them? 3) finally, why does this form of science appear invisible to outside observers, such as the experts working on the IRRI project? how is this invisibility produced, and how does the fact of its marginality contribute to the form that insitu plant genetic resources conservation has taken? Research activities will consist of over two years of ethnographic field research among highland farmers. In addition to observing and participating in the daily lives of farmers, by asking who got which seeds from whom, the researcher will follow the chain-of-custody of the re-introduced cultivars back along the networks of exchange through which they travelled to reach their present day locations.Intellectual merit: This study will expand the scope of science and technology studies by investigating a non-Western, marginalized form of applied agricultural science. The project will contribute theoretical insight into the crafting of knowledge undertaken outside the framework of state-centric and capital-intensive scientific research paradigms, and will contribute to a further refinement of STS scholars' understandings of science as culture and practice. The subject has intrinsic interest because of the importance of in situ genetic resource conservation and crop reintroduction for post-war and post-conflict settings. Broader impacts: By disseminating the results of this study broadly, to audiences interested in anthropology, science studies, alternative agricultural development, and post-war reconstruction, the study will encourage policy and research on alternatives to state-centered crop rehabilitation programs. By calling attention to the agency of individual farmers in the process of scientific discovery, the study encourages the broader representation of underrepresented groups in the crafting of science research and policy.

1986年，在柬埔寨一段旷日持久的武装冲突即将结束之际，国际水稻研究所发起了一项影响深远、资金充足的努力，向柬埔寨农民重新引进一些在战争中失去的低地水稻品种。与此同时，在柬埔寨东北部的高地上也发生了类似的过程，通过跨国社会网络交换种子和信息，少数民族农民向东北山区重新引进了许多作物栽培方法。然而，这种努力在很大程度上对外部观察者来说是不可见的。根据科学和技术研究的最新方法，该提案认为，允许将正式的国际水稻研究所项目理解为科学，而看似非正式的高原作物再引进项目被排除在这一类别之外的区别是错误的，是边界划定活动的产物。高原农民显然是专家，尽管没有资格。因此，作为一项科学努力，高原作物遗传资源的保护和重新引入受到社会、政治和文化因素的调节。本研究项目旨在了解高原原地保护实践中信息、种子和资源特征的交流。具体来说，1)高原农民如何产生关于作物品种的知识？2)信息和植物遗传物质如何交换？种子交换网络是如何运作的，还有哪些其他形式的信息或交换沿着它们传播？3)最后，为什么这种形式的科学对外部观察者（例如从事IRRI项目的专家）来说是不可见的？这种不可见性是如何产生的，它的边缘性是如何促成原地植物遗传资源保护的形式的？研究活动将包括在高原农民中进行为期两年的民族志实地研究。除了观察和参与农民的日常生活，通过询问谁从谁那里得到了哪些种子，研究人员还将沿着交换网络跟踪重新引入的品种的监管链，通过这些交换网络回到它们现在的位置。智力优势：本研究将通过研究非西方的、被边缘化的应用农业科学形式，扩大科学和技术研究的范围。该项目将为在国家中心和资本密集型科学研究范式框架之外进行的知识制作提供理论见解，并将有助于进一步完善STS学者对科学作为文化和实践的理解。由于就地遗传资源保护和作物重新引进对战后和冲突后环境的重要性，这一主题具有内在的意义。更广泛的影响：通过向对人类学、科学研究、替代农业发展和战后重建感兴趣的受众广泛传播本研究的结果，本研究将鼓励以国家为中心的作物恢复计划的替代政策和研究。通过呼吁人们关注个体农民在科学发现过程中的作用，这项研究鼓励在科学研究和政策的制定过程中更广泛地代表未被充分代表的群体。