Standard Grant: An Ethnography of Pathways to Interdisciplinary Knowledge Integration at Two Environmental Science Sites in Brazil

University Of Oregon Eugene, Eugene OR

Investigators

Abstract

General Audience Summary This project aims to use the tools of science and technology studies (STS) to enhance empirical understanding of scientific collaboration across scales, disciplines, and international borders. The investigator will engage in an ethnographic inquiry of two international science projects seeking to integrate knowledge about microbes in the Brazilian Amazon, a global reservoir of biodiversity and frontier for international science partnerships. She will examine the collaborative practices of scientists using qualitative and visual methods to complete her research objectives, which are to identify concrete pathways to more effective knowledge integration and to advance theoretical understanding of the ontological and geopolitical dimensions of interdisciplinary science and international collaboration. The project will generate societal benefits by identifying best practices in interdisciplinary and international science. It will also enhance public understanding of new trends in molecular and microbial environmental science through humanistic inquiry, specifically art and visual medium. Expected outcomes of the project include the mentoring and training of two students in STS theory and methods; a white paper aimed at public funding agencies and science practitioners; several publications in high-impact journals; and a three-month museum visit with development of an associated website and educational materials. Dissemination plans include presentations at two international conferences, co-authored publications with students and collaborators from Brazil and Canada, and the development of a project website in English and Portuguese. Technical Summary This ethnographic study of environmental science in the Amazon will identify pathways to more effective knowledge integration and will advance theories in STS regarding the ontological and geopolitical dimensions of interdisciplinary science and international collaboration. It will make important intellectual advances on three fronts: (1) New empirical knowledge regarding effective knowledge integration, including the barriers and best practices in collaboration across scales, disciplines, and cultures; (2) Novel research methods that visually explain how disciplinary cultures diverge in their approaches to framing and integrating objects of inquiry at multiple scales; and (3) Improved theories of science as visual practice, grounded in how individual subjects experience and are even transformed by encounters between differing scaling imaginaries and practices. With a focus on the Brazilian Amazon, the project will produce useful empirical insights about knowledge production in a region where scientific exploration, expertise, and knowledge extraction has been mired in political controversy for decades. Research that enhances systematic understanding of factors affecting collaborative knowledge production in response to environmental change is a recognized priority.