Policing the Skies: Environmental Governmentality, State Science and the British Atmosphere.

在当代对气候变化、臭氧层破坏以及与空气污染有关的各种健康问题的关注的背景下，了解大气中正在发生的事情从未像现在这样重要。但是我们怎么知道大气中的化学平衡和不平衡呢？这个项目是基于这样一种信念，即为了理解今天可用的大气知识的类型，我们需要从历史的角度来看待塑造了大气监测程序的形式、性质和政治制度。该项目特别以英国为重点，描绘了大气污染监测的出现、科学突破和政治举措，这些都使越来越多的国家监测模式成为可能。该项目的目标是：-揭示历史上能够产生大气污染知识的技术和政治过程。-审查对国家空气监测进程出现的政治和地理阻力。-揭示了解和监测英国空气污染事件的各种可供选择的本地方法。这个项目主要关注人类社会和大气之间的联系。大气是各种社会、经济和生态系统的重要交汇点，但历史上对其的研究一直是物理科学家的专事。越来越多从事艺术和人文学科研究的学者开始揭示大气变化的社会经济过程，以及大气知识如何与一系列文化传统和政治程序联系在一起。分析还涉及科学实践的历史演变，以及科学发展如何受到政治要求和技术突破的影响。在英国大气的背景下，这个项目描绘了自1891年《公共卫生法》以来，如何不断努力建立一门空气污染监测科学。通过回顾负责污染观测的早期气象学家和烟雾官员的描述，本项目揭示了大气观测科学发展中存在的实际障碍。该研究项目还考虑了国家当局和政府部门在英国建立国家大气监测科学方面的作用。通过对不同政府部门记录的研究，分析显示了从20世纪20年代开始，一个日益广泛的空间监测的新制度是如何在英国出现的。分析最后考虑了英国第一次全国空气污染调查（1961-1971）的运作，并揭示了英国的国家空气污染登记远非代表中央国家计划的胜利，而是部分是当地科学倡议和机构发展的产物，这些成果是在当地监测点和站实现的。通过描绘英国国家大气监测科学的兴起，该项目揭示了当代大气知识的登记是如何部分地继承了过去政治当局的目标和理性。这样，分析就暴露了现有的大气知识是如何被政府当局的监测愿望所组织和限制的，而不是反映科学研究或社会团体的需要。这项工作的价值在于，它表明需要更广泛的监测和了解大气的方法，这些方法可以满足不同地理位置的更广泛的社会需要。＼

In the context of contemporary concern over climate change, the destruction of the Ozone Layer and the various health problems associated with air pollution there has never been a more important time to know what is going on in the atmosphere. But how do we know about the chemical balances and imbalances of the atmosphere? This project is based upon the belief that in order to understand the types of atmospheric knowledge, which are available today we need to take an historical look at the sciences and political regimes which have shaped the form and nature and atmospheric monitoring procedures. Focusing specifically on the UK, this project charts the emergence of atmospheric pollution monitoring and the scientific breakthroughs and political initiatives, which have made increasingly national patterns of monitoring possible.The projects objectives are:- To reveal the technological and political processes which have historically enabled the production of knowledge of atmospheric pollution.- To examine the political and geographical resistances which have emerged to national air monitoring processes.- To reveal the variety of alternative, local ways which have emerged to knowing and monitoring air pollution events in Britain.This project is primarily interested in the links between human society and the atmosphere. The atmosphere embodies an important meeting point of various social, economic and ecological systems, but its study has historically been the preserve of the physical scientist. Increasingly scholars working within the Arts and Humanities have started to uncover the socio-economic processes through which the atmosphere is transformed, and how knowledge of the atmosphere is connected to a whole range of cultural traditions and political procedures. Analysis is also concerned with the historical evolution of scientific practice and how scientific development is shaped by both political requirements and technological breakthroughs. In the context of the British atmosphere this project charts how since the 1891 Public Health Act there has been an ongoing struggle to forge a science of air pollution monitoring. By revisiting the accounts of early meteorologists and smoke officers who were given responsibility for pollution observation this project reveals the practical barriers, which existed to the development of a science of atmospheric observation. This research project also considers the role of state authorities and governmental departments in forging a national science of atmospheric monitoring in the UK. Through the study of the records of different government departments, analysis shows how a new regime of increasingly broad spatial monitoring started to emerge in the UK form the 1920s onwards. Analysis culminates with a consideration of the operation of the Britain's first National Air Pollution Survey (1961-1971), and reveals that far from representing a triumph of central state planning, that national registers of air pollution in the UK are in part a product of the local scientific initiatives and institutional developments which were achieved at local monitoring sites and stations. By charting the rise of a state science of atmospheric monitoring in the UK this project reveals how contemporary registers of atmospheric knowledge are, in part, the legacies of the goals and rationalities of erstwhile political authorities. In this way analysis exposes how rather than reflecting the needs of scientific research or social communities, available knowledge of the atmosphere is structured and constrained by the monitoring desires of governmental authorities. The value of this exercise derives from the ways in which it suggests the need for a broader range of ways of monitoring and knowing the atmosphere, which can serve a much broader range of social needs in diverse geographical locations. \