Ocean thinking. The work of ocean sciences, scientists, and technologies in producing the sea as space
In: Environment and Society. Berghahn Books: New York. ISSN 2150-6779; e-ISSN 2150-6787, more
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Keyword |
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Author keywords |
anthropology of science; climate change; oceans; oceanography; scienceand technology studies; sociology of science; space and place |
Abstract |
How do scientists produce the ocean as space through their work and words? In this article, I examine how the techniques and tools of oceanographers constitute ocean science. Bringing theoretical literature from science and technology studies on how scientists “do” science into conversation with fine-grained ethnographic and sociological accounts of scientists in the field, I explore how ocean science is made, produced, and negotiated. Within this central concern, the technologies used to obtain data draw particular focus. Juxtaposed with this literature is a corpus by ocean scientists about their own work as well as interview data from original research. Examining the differences between scientists’ self-descriptions and analyses of them by social scientists leads to a productive exploration of how ocean science is constituted and how this work delineates the ocean as a form of striated space. This corpus of literature is placed in the context of climate change in the final section. |
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