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

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 inf...

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Bibliographic Details
Superior document:Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Complete eBook-Package 2017
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Place / Publishing House:Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2017]
©2017
Year of Publication:2017
Language:English
Series:Expertise: Cultures and Technologies of Knowledge
Online Access:
Physical Description:1 online resource (224 p.)
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Other title: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
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.
Format:Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.
ISBN:9781501708367
9783110665871
DOI:10.7591/9781501708367
Access:restricted access
Hierarchical level:Monograph
Statement of Responsibility: Jessica O'Reilly.