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了各国政府、政府间机构和非政府组织的代表，就一类化学品“持久性有机污染物”（POP）达成了一项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。本论文研究项目采用Bruno Latour及其同事介绍的方法，调查了来自以下四个话语社区的非政府组织的科学承诺：氯工业，国际环境组织，公共卫生组织和土著人民组织。这个项目的目的是：1）让每个话语社区了解其对有毒化学品科学的特定观点，2）对于这些科学观点中的每一个，描述赋予其权威和稳定性的网络，以及3）对于这些网络中的每一个，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，放大另一些声音）。本研究采用民族志的方法，包括观察会议，与与会者的访谈，和文本分析的四个主题的非政府组织的出版物。这一分析将有助于更好地了解持久性有机污染物问题国际辩论中所涉及的各种根本不同的科学观点，以及每种观点所包含的关于自然的独特观点。

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.