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

这个科学与社会论文改进补助金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。自然和科学的新兴话语标志着智利森林政治作为生产环境知识的关键位置;也就是说，关键概念的新定义，如可持续性，科学的可信度，甚至森林。认证记录了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，认证代表了一种创新的新形式的私人监管（卡索等。2004）。该项目将解决森林核证方面尚未解决的主要问题;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（1999年a）所指出的，关于可持续生产标准的谈判往往将科学价值置于社会价值之上。本研究的目的，然后，是了解文化和权力的相互作用的背景下，智利的认证系统。谁是确定认证标准的主要行为者，他们在谈判桌上带来了什么价值观和利益？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、土著知识）？谈判过程边缘的行为者（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、访谈和参与观察智利森林管理理事会认证进程的所有相关行为体来解决。本文所述的研究项目解决了人类学，科学研究和社会科学的重要理论问题。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著作（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文献将证明这一经典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Fairhead和Leach（2003）所指出的，科学研究领域倾向于强调欧洲和北美高科技核心的知识生产。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国家的领域，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，将有助于推动科学研究走向更真正的全球视角。通过研究理清目前影响智利森林的社会和生态因素，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被其他地方采用。拟议对智利森林管理理事会认证程序进行深入的人种学研究，将跟踪一个可能在全世界产生影响的新兴监管制度。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加公正，在生态上更加可持续。此外，关于自然科学在形成环境政策方面的作用的经验细节将有助于今后更有效和更公平的决策。最后，本论文的研究将对青年社会科学家的教育起到重要的作用。

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.