The Technocratic Antarctic : An Ethnography of Scientific Expertise and Environmental Governance / Jessica O'Reilly.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

O'Reilly, Jessica, 1978- author.

Series:

Expertise (Ithaca, N.Y.)

Expertise: Cultures and Technologies of Knowledge

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Environmental policy--Antarctica.

Environmental policy.

Human ecology--Antarctica.

Human ecology.

Ethnology--Antarctica.

Ethnology.

Scientists--Antarctica.

Scientists.

Antarctica--Research.

Antarctica.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (222 pages) : illustrations.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Ithaca, NY : Cornell University Press, [2017]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

The Technocratic Antarctic is an ethnographic account of the scientists and policymakers who work on Antarctica. In a place with no indigenous people, Antarctic scientists and policymakers use expertise as their primary model of governance. Scientific research and policymaking are practices that inform each other, and the Antarctic environment-with its striking beauty, dramatic human and animal lives, and specter of global climate change-not only informs science and policy but also lends Antarctic environmentalism a particularly technocratic patina.Jessica O'Reilly conducted most of her research for this book in New Zealand, home of the "Antarctic Gateway" city of Christchurch, and on an expedition to Windless Bight, Antarctica, with the New Zealand Antarctic Program. O'Reilly also follows the journeys Antarctic scientists and policymakers take to temporarily "Antarctic" places such as science conferences, policy workshops, and the international Antarctic Treaty meetings in Scotland, Australia, and India. Competing claims of nationalism, scientific disciplines, field experiences, and personal relationships among Antarctic environmental managers disrupt the idea of a utopian epistemic community. O'Reilly focuses on what emerges in Antarctica among the complicated and hybrid forms of science, sociality, politics, and national membership found there. The Technocratic Antarctic unfolds the historical, political, and moral contexts that shape experiences of and decisions about the Antarctic environment.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Acronyms

Introduction

1. The Imagined Antarctic

2. The Environmental History of the Antarctic

3. Sensing the Ice

4. Samples and Specimens at Antarctic Biosecurity Borders

5. Managing Antarctic Science in an Epistemic Technocracy

6. Tectonic Time and Sacred Geographies in the Larsemann Hills

7. Charismatic Data and Climate Change

Conclusion

Notes

References

Index

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9780801456923

0801456924

9781501708350

150170835X

OCLC:

956379795