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

由科学与社会计划和生物学理事会资助的博士后奖学金支持圣克拉拉大学Geoffrey Bowker和Susan Leigh星星下的Eben Kirksey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特定的科学研究文献中获得：兴趣，社会世界，仪器，生物多样性和基础设施。 培训地点在北方加州，提供了一个更广泛的科学研究网络，使合作PI能够通过跟随该地区多个校区的一些演讲者系列来了解前沿学术。在史密森热带研究所（STRI），一系列科学仪器和日常技术被汇集在一起，使植物，动物和微生物与人类相关。 民族志涉及在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-探索科学家，parataxonomists，生态游客，护林员（guardabosques）和巴拿马农民的重叠社会世界。 在巴拿马的多个地点使用了参与观察和录音访谈的传统人种学方法。 STRI的项目集中在巴拿马中部的森林，可以被视为一个连接多个社会世界的“边界对象”。 边界对象对于几个相交的社会世界是有意义的。 物体通过同时居住在多个世界中而形成了多个世界之间的共同边界。 这些对象保留了多个视点的痕迹，并满足潜在冲突的关注点集。 企业家通过将代理人带入集体来弥合不同的社会世界。 这些群体围绕着焦点物种或理论问题，聚集了广泛的盟友联盟。 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，权力的动态作用。研究结果通过学术书籍长度的手稿和大众媒体的文章传达给广大受众。 PI和co-PI计划举办一个关于美洲生物多样性的研讨会和一个团队授课的本科科学研究课程。

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.