Standard Grant: An Ethnography of Pathways to Interdisciplinary Knowledge Integration at Two Environmental Science Sites in Brazil

普通受众摘要 该项目旨在利用科学技术研究 (STS) 工具来增强对跨规模、跨学科和国际边界的科学合作的实证理解。调查员将对两个国际科学项目进行人种学调查，寻求整合巴西亚马逊地区微生物的知识，巴西亚马逊地区是全球生物多样性库和国际科学伙伴关系的前沿。她将使用定性和视觉方法来检查科学家的协作实践，以完成她的研究目标，即确定更有效的知识整合的具体途径，并促进对跨学科科学和国际合作的本体论和地缘政治维度的理论理解。该项目将通过确定跨学科和国际科学的最佳实践来产生社会效益。它还将通过人文探究，特别是艺术和视觉媒介，增强公众对分子和微生物环境科学新趋势的理解。该项目的预期成果包括对两名学生进行 STS 理论和方法的指导和培训；针对公共资助机构和科学从业者的白皮书；在高影响力期刊上发表过几篇文章；为期三个月的博物馆参观，并开发了相关网站和教育材料。传播计划包括在两次国际会议上发表演讲、与巴西和加拿大的学生和合作者共同撰写出版物，以及开发英语和葡萄牙语的项目网站。技术摘要 这项针对亚马逊环境科学的民族志研究将确定更有效的知识整合途径，并将推进 STS 中关于跨学科科学和国际合作的本体论和地缘政治维度的理论。它将在三个方面取得重要的智力进展：（1）关于有效知识整合的新经验知识，包括跨规模、学科和文化合作的障碍和最佳实践； (2) 新颖的研究方法，直观地解释学科文化在多尺度构建和整合研究对象的方法上的差异； (3)作为视觉实践的科学理论得到改进，其基础是个体主体如何体验，甚至通过不同尺度的想象和实践之间的相遇而改变。该项目以巴西亚马逊地区为重点，将为该地区的知识生产提供有用的实证见解，几十年来，该地区的科学探索、专业知识和知识提取一直深陷政治争议。加强对影响协作知识生产以应对环境变化的因素的系统理解的研究是公认的优先事项。

General Audience Summary This project aims to use the tools of science and technology studies (STS) to enhance empirical understanding of scientific collaboration across scales, disciplines, and international borders. The investigator will engage in an ethnographic inquiry of two international science projects seeking to integrate knowledge about microbes in the Brazilian Amazon, a global reservoir of biodiversity and frontier for international science partnerships. She will examine the collaborative practices of scientists using qualitative and visual methods to complete her research objectives, which are to identify concrete pathways to more effective knowledge integration and to advance theoretical understanding of the ontological and geopolitical dimensions of interdisciplinary science and international collaboration. The project will generate societal benefits by identifying best practices in interdisciplinary and international science. It will also enhance public understanding of new trends in molecular and microbial environmental science through humanistic inquiry, specifically art and visual medium. Expected outcomes of the project include the mentoring and training of two students in STS theory and methods; a white paper aimed at public funding agencies and science practitioners; several publications in high-impact journals; and a three-month museum visit with development of an associated website and educational materials. Dissemination plans include presentations at two international conferences, co-authored publications with students and collaborators from Brazil and Canada, and the development of a project website in English and Portuguese. Technical Summary This ethnographic study of environmental science in the Amazon will identify pathways to more effective knowledge integration and will advance theories in STS regarding the ontological and geopolitical dimensions of interdisciplinary science and international collaboration. It will make important intellectual advances on three fronts: (1) New empirical knowledge regarding effective knowledge integration, including the barriers and best practices in collaboration across scales, disciplines, and cultures; (2) Novel research methods that visually explain how disciplinary cultures diverge in their approaches to framing and integrating objects of inquiry at multiple scales; and (3) Improved theories of science as visual practice, grounded in how individual subjects experience and are even transformed by encounters between differing scaling imaginaries and practices. With a focus on the Brazilian Amazon, the project will produce useful empirical insights about knowledge production in a region where scientific exploration, expertise, and knowledge extraction has been mired in political controversy for decades. Research that enhances systematic understanding of factors affecting collaborative knowledge production in response to environmental change is a recognized priority.