Dissertation Research: Science and Politics in the International Debate over Persistent Organic Pollutants: An Ethnographic Study

University Of California-Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz CA

Investigators

Abstract

The United Nations Environment Program has convened representatives of national governments, inter-governmental bodies, and non-governmental organizations(NGOs), to reach a binding international agreement over a class of chemicals, 'persistent organic pollutants'(POPs). This controversy raises crucial issues about the relation between science, politics, and society. Following the methods introduced by Bruno Latour and his colleagues, this dissertation research project investigates the scientific commitments of NGOs from each of the four following discursive communities: the chlorine industry, international environmental groups, public health organizations, and indigenous peoples' organizations. The aim of this project is 1) for each discursive community to understand its particular perspective on the science of toxic chemicals, 2) for each of these scientific perspectives, to describe the network that gives it authority and stability, and 3) for each of these networks, to detail the social relations inherent in it (e.g.,unequal power relations, the dampening of certain voices and amplification of others). This study employs ethnographic methods, including observation of the conferences, interviews with participants, and textual analysis of the publications of the four subject NGOs. This analysis will contribute to a better understanding of the various, fundamentally different scientific perspectives that are engaged within the international debate on POPs, and of the distinct views of nature each contains.