science

Question 1

science is an ‘essentially contested concept’

Answer 1

Gallie (1964)

Question 2

what were traditional understandings of science?

Answer 2

distinguished from other forms of knowledge abt the world (eg religion) through the belief that scientific methods offer a definitive view of the world as it really is
rather than a subjective interpretation

Question 3

what constitutes the geographical turn in science studies?

Answer 3

the understanding of knowledge as made
through situated practical activity
knowledge is a ‘view from somewhere’

Question 4

what are the origins of critical science studies?

Answer 4

Thomas Kuhn
argues that the failure of some forms of scientific theory was not because of scientific error but rather changes within the culture of science

known as paradigm shifts

Question 5

who formed the basis of the sociology of scientific knowledge inspired by Thomas Kuhn?

Answer 5

David Bloor
both successful and unsuccessful scientific claims are susceptible to social influences and are the product of a time and place

Question 6

Who published laboratory life?

Answer 6

Latour and Woolgar (1979)

Question 7

what did Laboratory life argue abt science?

Answer 7

facts are constructed using a combination of the lab environment, personnel , materials, machines and the peer review process

examined the lab as a cultural space = constituted through practices

marked turning point in sciences as found a middle point between extreme objectivity and subjectivity

Question 8

who were the 3 key ppl involved in the spatial turn for science studies ?

Answer 8

Foucault , Said, Livingstone

Question 9

Foucault on the spatial turn

Answer 9

Draws attention to the spaces of dispersion - why does it get to some places quicker than others and where is it emanating from

Question 10

Said on spatial turn

Answer 10

travelling theory

theory is a product of time and place and therefore is appropriated in space and time

spaces and places are produced and therefore become a locus of scholarly and other forms of interrogation

Form particular ‘ways of knowing’

Question 11

Livingstone (1995) on science and space

Answer 11

• different types of social relations within scientific spaces can effect the products of scientific analysis
• space of the lab and fieldwork are entirely different
• the production of scientific knowledge, its character and conditions is inherently spatially organised
• you can be geographically privileged in order to ppt in the knowledge world

Question 12

What theory did Latour go onto develop as part of the post humanist theory of science?

Answer 12

Actor Network theory
- asserts that scientific knowledge is coproduced by human and non-human actors

Question 13

Haraway on post humanist science theory?

Answer 13

stress how innovations in biotechnology are making it hard to establish where humanity ends and the rest of the world begins

• makes singular human perspective more difficult
• scientific knowledge cannot stand apart from the world it actively intervenes in it
• modern society has created a false divide between the natural and social worlds
• situated knowledge = must locate the ‘view from nowhere’

Question 14

how is science political?

Answer 14

• scientific endevours reflect regional and political factors = shape the adoption of theories and methods
• governments and external funding shape the research patterns with different areas of investment

Question 15

case study of citizen science- researcher name and date

Answer 15

Gabys et al (2021)

Question 16

How is citizen infrastructure effecting citizen science?
what forms can it take? what are its implications?

Answer 16

takes the form of digital platforms , community forums and lived environments

have the potential to ensure more sustainable and democratic modes of public engagement

at a time where so much of science is focussed ontechnical systems also important to help understand how these technologies will effect local lives

Question 17

how do infrastructures allow for ongoing exchange between the expert and citizen?

Answer 17

• public consultation through designated channels
• communities involved in the making of infrastructure through everyday practice
• lived environments that ppl operate within for the possibilities for ongoing collective exchanges

Question 18

Citizen science project example:

Answer 18

Citizen sense (2013)
- participatory research working with communities in the UK and The US to build install and test digital sensors to monitor air pollution

• citizens could contribute useful data that expands beyond expert led data sets

action for a more sustainable and just social world

Question 19

Biodiversity data collection participatory science example =

Answer 19

Toogood (2013)
in last 20 years has been a participatory turn of non expert publics in various forms of science

direct observation of nature = bird counting, plant identification

Question 20

Toogood (2013)
criticizms of the participatory science suggestions?

Answer 20

excludes certain socio economic groups

questions the extent to which engagement is ‘trivial’ and provides a symbolic role of the public

the professionals fram what type of participation volunteers are able to make = limited to data collection often excluded from policy collaboration

volunteers themselves have recognised an artificial separation from science and policy imposed by the programme = maintains a border between science and policy and ppl

Question 21

quote from Toogood (2013)

Answer 21

‘knowledge once held tightly in the hands of professionals will start to flow into the networks of dedicated amateurs’

Question 22

flood apprentices - participatory science example
Author date

Answer 22

Whatmore (2011)

Question 23

whatmore (2011)
explain study

Answer 23

Research group in Pickering with long experience of flooding
- created competancy groups :
- interrogate the intermediate stages of expert knowledge production
- redistribute expertise among ppts

Question 24

who did the competency groups in Pickering compose of?

Answer 24

2 flood modellers, 3 social scientists, 8 local meetings

Had bimonthly meetings
field visits
archival research
video recordings

Question 25

Results of the competency groups in pickering?

Answer 25

led to new knowledge practices and mediations increased public engagement and slowed down expert reasoning creation of bund model = routes surface overland flow of floodwater under conditions of soil saturation based on a distributional algorithm = has been a successful model for upstream flood risk management

Question 26

The Pickering competency groups have demonstrate that -

Answer 26

CG blur the distance between the observer and observed allows ppts to have an ability to change policy redistribute expertise scientists also have a key role in designing research practices that slow down expert reasoning

Question 27

study supporting a more than human approach to science

Answer 27

Hinchliffe (2001) - the BSE crisis

Question 28

The BSE crisis what does this reveal abt adopting a more than human approach to science

Answer 28

cartographies of disease have been drawn to fit economic and political agendas: - they fail to account for actual behaviour of diseases - BSE models failed to address the distributions, exclusion and power relations inherent in policy making - treated the spread of BSE as confined to geographical borders byt ignored the mobility of infected materials such as cattle feed The policies implemennted reflected economic and industrial priorities = influenced what was studies and what policies were created

Question 29

more than human approach to science explain

Answer 29

unfasten nature from its foundation moorings and challenge the way science approaches disease need a willingness to discuss nature issues not as issues that lie ouside of out societies but rather as complex entanglements

Question 30

science is highly linked to colonisation + and racial oppression Journal

Answer 30

Roy (2018) - the conversation

Question 31

How has science been justified by imperialism?

Answer 31

Sir Ronald Ross - won Nobel prize for medicine for malaria research - child of the empire - used microscope to identify how malaria was transmitted = discovery promted the protection of british troops and officials in the tropics - enabled further colonial expansion to consolidate imperial rule Science seed as gracious gifts from the europeans used to justify colonial practice

Question 32

modern colonial science in research?

Answer 32

academic journals are dominated by the US and western Europe most of Asia, Africa and Carribean are seen as playing catch up with the developed world or dependent on western expertise or funding dominant collaborators shape the research that takes place in country = prioritise research on immediate health risks instead of encouraging a wide range of topics persued int he west

Question 33

Paths to a decolonised science:

Answer 33

- contest claims of cultural superiority - instead of understanding science as the work of a lone genius or small group should insist on a more cosmopolitan model = recognise how networks of people have worked to co-produce knowledge return imperial collections schools should educate on the empires effect on development of science = how scientific knowledge has been used, forced, and sometimes resisted by colonised peoples