Dissertation Improvement Grant: Knowledge Production in the Context of Negotiations over Forest Certification

论文改进补助金：森林认证谈判背景下的知识生产

• 批准号: 0620774
• 金额: $ 1.2万
• 依托单位: University of Georgia Research Foundation Inc
• 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: 2006-09-01 至 2007-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0620774&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Knowledge; Production

This Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant funds an in-depth ethnographic investigation of knowledge production in the context of negotiations over forest certification. Emerging discourses of nature and science mark Chilean forest politics as a crucial location for the production of environmental knowledge; that is, new definitions of key concepts like sustainability, scientific credibility, and even forest. Certification documents the sustainable management of a given forest property, allowing the owner to access the growing market for sustainably grown wood products. As a non-state market-driven (NSMD) approach, certification represents an innovative new form of private regulation (Cashore et. al. 2004). This project will address major questions about forest certification that remain unanswered; in particular, concerns about the capacity for scientific or technical standards to address social issues related to forestry. As Brosius (1999a) has pointed out, negotiations over standards for sustainable production have tended to prioritize scientific values over social ones. The objective of this research, then, is to understand the interplay of culture and power in the context of Chile's certification system. Who are the primary actors defining certification standards, and what values and interests do they bring to the negotiating table? What forms of knowledge (natural sciences, policy expertise, indigenous knowledge) do negotiators privilege in defining standards? How do actors marginal to the negotiating process (assessors, forest owners, and workers) contribute to the construction and interpretation of standards? These questions will be addressed through archival work, interviews and participant-observation with all relevant actors in the Chilean Forest Stewardship Council certification process. The research project described herein addresses theoretical issues of importance to anthropology, science studies, and social science in general. Concern with the cultural politics of commodity flows reaches back to Marx's foundational work on commodity fetishism (1967), and has provided the foundation for major innovations in cultural anthropology (Appadurai 1986, Comaroff and Comaroff 1990, Taussig 1980). Ethnographic documentation of knowledge production in a natural resource commodity chain will demonstrate the relevance of this classic Marxist formulation to contemporary politics, while continuing to erode the artificial boundary between 'cultural' and 'economic' practices as objects for social science research. As Fairhead and Leach (2003) have argued, the field of science studies has tended to emphasize knowledge production in the high-tech core of Europe and North America. The proposed project will help extend debates about science and society into the domain of the rural and developing world while incorporating insights from environmental anthropology. An empirical study of how knowledge production in an out-of-the-way place is integrated into an emergent free-market regulatory regime will help move science studies towards a more truly global perspective. Research that untangles the social and ecological factors currently shaping Chile's forests will contribute to a better understanding of global forest dynamics. Because Chile has been a model of neoliberal reforms for Latin America and the world, forest trade policies adopted in Chile are likely to be adopted elsewhere. The proposed in-depth ethnographic study of the Forest Stewardship Council certification process in Chile will track an emergent regulatory regime that is likely to be influential worldwide. By contributing to debates about the meaning and impact of ethical trade networks, this research will support efforts by civil society to make international trade more socially just and ecologically sustainable. Furthermore, empirical detail about the role of the natural sciences in shaping environmental policy will contribute to more effective and equitable policy-making in the future. Finally, this dissertation research will play an important part in the education of a young social scientist.

这项科学和社会学位论文改进拨款资助在森林认证谈判的背景下对知识生产进行深入的人种学调查。新出现的关于自然和科学的论述将智利的森林政治标记为生产环境知识的关键地点；也就是说，对可持续发展、科学可信度甚至森林等关键概念进行了新的定义。认证证明了对特定森林财产的可持续管理，使所有者能够进入不断增长的可持续种植木材产品市场。作为一种非国家市场驱动(NSMD)的方法，认证代表着一种创新的私人监管形式(Cashore et.艾尔2004年)。该项目将解决尚未得到解答的有关森林认证的主要问题；特别是对科学或技术标准解决与林业有关的社会问题的能力的关切。正如Brosius(1999a)指出的那样，关于可持续生产标准的谈判倾向于优先考虑科学价值而不是社会价值。因此，这项研究的目的是了解智利认证制度中文化和权力的相互作用。谁是确定认证标准的主要参与者，他们给谈判桌带来了什么价值和利益？谈判者在确定标准时优先考虑哪些形式的知识(自然科学、政策专门知识、本土知识)？在谈判过程中处于边缘地位的参与者(评估员、森林所有者和工人)如何为标准的构建和解释做出贡献？这些问题将通过档案工作、与智利森林管理委员会认证过程中所有相关行为者的访谈和参与者观察来解决。这里描述的研究项目解决了对人类学、科学研究和整个社会科学具有重要意义的理论问题。对商品流动的文化政治的关注可以追溯到马克思关于商品拜物教的基础性工作(1967)，并为文化人类学的重大创新提供了基础(Appadurai 1986，Comaroff and Comaroff 1990，Taussig 1980)。自然资源商品链中知识生产的民族志记录将证明这一经典的马克思主义提法与当代政治的相关性，同时继续侵蚀作为社会科学研究对象的“文化”和“经济”实践之间的人为边界。正如费尔黑德和利奇(2003)所主张的那样，科学研究领域倾向于强调欧洲和北美的高技术核心地区的知识生产。拟议的项目将有助于将关于科学和社会的辩论扩展到农村和发展中世界的领域，同时纳入环境人类学的见解。对偏远地区的知识生产如何融入新兴的自由市场监管制度进行实证研究，将有助于将科学研究推向更真正的全球视角。对目前影响智利森林的社会和生态因素进行研究，将有助于更好地了解全球森林动态。由于智利一直是拉丁美洲和世界新自由主义改革的典范，智利采取的森林贸易政策很可能会在其他地方得到采用。拟议对智利森林管理委员会认证过程进行的深入人种学研究将追踪一个可能在世界范围内产生影响的新的管理制度。通过促进关于道德贸易网络的意义和影响的辩论，这项研究将支持民间社会努力使国际贸易在社会上更公正，在生态上更可持续。此外，关于自然科学在制定环境政策中的作用的经验细节将有助于在未来更有效和更公平地制定政策。最后，本论文的研究将对青年社会科学家的培养起到重要作用。