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SSF-Svalbard Science Forum

Being in field. The role of fieldwork in ecological and environmental science in Ny-Ålesund (RIS 6664)

Tildelt: kr 39 999

Based on anthropological pilot research (June 2014, February, June 2015, RIS 6664), this project explores the contribution of being in the field (landscape, organisms, weather) to environmental and ecological science. Methodologically, it applies 'participant observation' to scientific work in Ny-Ålesund: the anthropologist will follow ornithologists in daily work, learning practices and routines, assisting data-collection. Such ethnographic study can counter simplified understandings of scientific work as utilitarian 'data collection' - i.e. acquisition of objectively verifiable data points, measurements or specimens - and misrepresentations of natural science as 'reductionist'. Based on observations during pilot research, this project will examine the role of fieldworkers' long-term experience, methodological skill and inventiveness, and personal sensitivities and habituation, to the success of research. It will observe subtle interactions among humans, and human and nonhuman inhabitants of the field, and how these contribute to knowledge. And it will attend to fieldworkers' respect for ecological complexity, environmental integrity and biological life, which shapes fieldwork, and is affirmed by being in the field. The project will make visible the practical, epistemological, social and ethical dimensions of fieldwork that are important for scientific validity and progress, even though they might appear personal, mundane or obvious - outside 'real' science. Thereby it will increase public understanding of science, and scientists' own understanding of their work. Such anthropology speaks to social science discussions about human-nature relations, and to 'Science and Technology Studies'' interest in science and place. At the same time, it adds to crucial debates among natural scientists, educationalists and policy makers, about the distinct value of fieldwork (and -stations) to the understanding of natural processes, and their importance for science education.

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SSF-Svalbard Science Forum