The Tropical Forest as a Boundary Object: An Ethnography of Multiple Collectives and Social Worlds

这一博士后奖学金由科学与社会计划和生物理事会资助，支持圣克拉拉大学杰弗里·鲍克和苏珊·利·斯塔尔领导下的埃本·柯克西的高级培训，以及巴拿马史密森热带研究所的人种学研究。高级教程培训在五个具体的科学研究文献中接受：兴趣、社会世界、仪器、生物多样性和基础设施。位于加利福尼亚州北部的培训地点提供了进入更广泛的科学研究网络的途径，使联合PI能够通过在该地区的多个校区跟踪一系列演讲来与前沿学术保持同步。在史密森热带研究所(STRI)，一系列科学仪器和日常技术被聚集在一起，使植物、动物和微生物与人类相关。人种志涉及对STRI共存的多个科学项目的研究。这个地方的民族志-巴拿马中部的热带雨林-探索了科学家、准分类学家、生态游客、护林员(守卫)和巴拿马农民重叠的社会世界。在巴拿马的多个地点使用了参与者观察和录音访谈的传统民族志方法。STRI的项目重点是巴拿马中部的森林，它可能被视为联合多个社会世界的“边界物体”。边界对象对于几个相交的社会世界具有重要意义。物体通过同时居住在多个世界之间，形成了一个共同的边界。这些对象保留了多个观点的痕迹，并满足了潜在的冲突关切集。企业家将代理人带入集体，在不同的社会世界之间架起一座桥梁。这些集体以焦点物种或理论问题为导向，组成了广泛的盟友联盟。该研究项目寻求新的实证证据，以说明当多个集体和社会世界相互作用时，权力的动态。研究结果通过一本学术书籍长度的手稿和流行媒体上的文章向广泛的受众传达。国际和平协会和联合国际计划举办一次关于美洲生物多样性的研讨会，以及一个团队授课的本科生科学研究课程。

This postdoctoral fellowship funded by the Science and Society Program and the Biology Directorate supports advanced training for Eben Kirksey under Geoffrey Bowker and Susan Leigh Star at Santa Clara University and ethnographic research at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Advanced tutorial training is received in five specific science studies literatures: interessement, social worlds, instrumentation, biodiversity, and infrastructure. The location of the training in northern California affords access to a broader science studies network, enabling the co-PI to stay abreast of cutting-edge scholarship by following a number of speaker series at the multiple campuses in the region.At the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) an array of scientific instruments and everyday technologies have been brought together to make plants, animals, and microbes relevant to human concerns. The ethnography involves study of the multiple scientific projects that coexist at STRI. This ethnography of a place - the rainforest of central Panama - explores the overlapping social worlds of scientists, parataxonomists, eco-tourists, forest rangers (guardabosques), and Panamanian farmers. Conventional ethnographic methods of participant observation and tape-recorded interviews are used at multiple locations in Panama. The projects at STRI focus on the forest of central Panama which may be viewed as a "boundary object" that unites multiple social worlds. Boundary objects are meaningful to several intersecting social worlds. Objects come to form a common boundary between multiple worlds by inhabiting them all simultaneously. These objects retain traces of multiple viewpoints and satisfy potentially conflicting sets of concerns. Entrepreneurs bridge different social worlds by bringing agents into collectives. These collectives, oriented around focal species or theoretical problems, assemble broad coalitions of allies. The research project seeks out new empirical evidence to illustrate the dynamics of power at work when multiple collectives and social worlds interact.The findings are communicated to broad audiences through an academic book length manuscript and articles in the popular media. The PI and co-PI plan a symposium on biodiversity in the Americas and a team-taught undergraduate science studies course.