ETHNOGRAPHY AND THE CIRCULATION OF KNOWLEDGE
Resumo
This chapter discusses ethnographic engagement with scientific teams in order to consider the place of science, technology and society-inspired ethnographies in thinking about knowledge production and circulation in multidisciplinary scientific work. The practice of ethnography of/in multidisciplinary projects is both productive in terms of enabling knowledge about “interdisciplinary science in the making” and disruptive, as it becomes a part of said knowledge processes in ways we have yet to fully consider. Through looking back at results from research conducted in the USA (with a group involved in building a model of heat transfer in tissues) and in Brazil (with remote-sensing scientists who work around deforestation monitoring), the chapter will explore two interrelated facets: (a) misunderstandings in interdisciplinary work are not reducible to communication gaps but pertain to differences in epistemic cultures, backgrounds, understandings of truth and methods; (b) participating in such interdisciplinary interactions places the ethnographer in an unstable but potentially productive position in terms of their own expertise. The chapter concludes by reflecting on how the exploration of these gaps and frictions can help construct a more active place for ethnography in such multidisciplinary efforts. By making explicit the disruptions involving such interactions (which include the ethnographer), they can be explored productively as tools for knowledge production.
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