This book poses the question: So what and where is fieldscience? To answer this the book addresses a number of key aspects of fieldscience: the theories that sustain it and that it sustains; the bodies that do it (as well as those that don't); the spaces it is done in and away from; the movements of things, information and ideas involved; and the contexts that surround and influence it. These go to make up the substantive chapters of this volume. Threading through all of these discussions - indeed, through the book as a whole - are a number of arguments and preoccupations. The first is that fieldscience should be understood as part of an expressly empirical and practical inquiry that emerged out of the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century and even out of earlier maritime exploratory endeavours. The second main point is that fieldscience should be understood as a science of the intransigent.
In other words, fieldscience is concerned with studying those phenomena which cannot or should not be removed from their natural habitat, whether it be a beetle in the Amazon rainforest, a glacier in the Alps, a flower by an English riverbank or a tribe of people in the snowy wastes of Canada. This has several significant implications. For instance, fieldscientists have to work very hard to prove to their audience that what they say they saw whilst in the field is actually true. Moreover, the very body of the fieldworker him- or her-self is crucial in the establishment of these truths. This is not only to refer to the practices and exertions that fieldstudy requires of the scientist but to their race, gender, social and moral status, and professional credentials. The third main argument is that fieldscience has a geography. Scientific knowledges are produced out of local circumstances, and so should be treated as local knowledges. The fourth main point is that various political, economic and social processes, as well as technological and scientific improvements, have continually prompted, perpetuated and questioned fieldscience.
Chapter one: Theories This chapter addresses the question: Is there a philosophy of the field? It investigates the theories that produced, justified and sustained field-science. Chapter two: Bodies This chapter analyses the figure of the fieldworker, centering discussion around the question, does fieldscience have a corporeal history? Chapter three: Spaces This chapter looks at the geographies of the field, circulating around the question, how has the field been defined and delimited? Chapter four: Movements This chapter poses the question, how does fieldscience travel? This might be put another way: How does fieldscience move places, natures and peoples from one site to another? Chapter five: Contexts The last substantive chapter in the book is entitled Contexts and it poses the question, can we understand fieldscience in isolation? Here, the relationship between fieldwork and imperialism is discussed, as is its association with other processes such as industrial capitalism, the church, conservationism, medicine and sport.
- ISBN10 1405105534
- ISBN13 9781405105538
- Publish Date 1 May 2007
- Publish Status Cancelled
- Out of Print 23 June 2006
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Imprint Blackwell Publishers
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 256
- Language English