Dragnet Ecology—“Just the Facts, Ma'am”: The Privilege of Science in a Postmodern World

Allen, Timothy F. H.; Tainter, Joseph A.; Pires, J. Chris; Hoekstra, Thomas W.

doi:10.1641/0006-3568(2001)051[0475:dejtfm]2.0.co;2

Cited by 111 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…Because of the central role clear hypothesis formulation and testing play in scientific research, we suggest that the arguments presented here apply not only to the field of domestication research or population genetics, but to any discipline involving historical inference (85,92). Modeling is not the only way to proceed and does not guarantee the right answers [indeed, "models are always wrong, and sometimes useful" (91)].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Storytelling and story testing in domestication

Gerbault¹,

Allaby

Boivin

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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The domestication of plants and animals marks one of the most significant transitions in human, and indeed global, history. Traditionally, study of the domestication process was the exclusive domain of archaeologists and agricultural scientists; today it is an increasingly multidisciplinary enterprise that has come to involve the skills of evolutionary biologists and geneticists. Although the application of new information sources and methodologies has dramatically transformed our ability to study and understand domestication, it has also generated increasingly large and complex datasets, the interpretation of which is not straightforward. In particular, challenges of equifinality, evolutionary variance, and emergence of unexpected or counter-intuitive patterns all face researchers attempting to infer past processes directly from patterns in data. We argue that explicit modeling approaches, drawing upon emerging methodologies in statistics and population genetics, provide a powerful means of addressing these limitations. Modeling also offers an approach to analyzing datasets that avoids conclusions steered by implicit biases, and makes possible the formal integration of different data types. Here we outline some of the modeling approaches most relevant to current problems in domestication research, and demonstrate the ways in which simulation modeling is beginning to reshape our understanding of the domestication process.T he emergence of agriculture beginning some 10,000 y ago marked more than a change in human patterns of subsistence. The beginnings of food production ushered in an era of radically new relationships between humans and other species, dramatic new evolutionary pressures, and fundamental transformations to the earth's biosphere. The evolutionary process of plant and animal domestication by humans led to morphological, physiological, behavioral, and genetic differentiation of a wide range of species from their wild progenitors (1, 2). The selection pressures that were placed on such species continue today, sometimes through direct genetic modification, and both the processes and their outcomes are accordingly of significant broader interest. Domestication is also part of a cultural evolutionary process (3, 4), and some human genes have evolved in response to cultural innovations (5-8), much as the genes of domesticated species have changed under the impact of human artificial selection. The study of domestication today is a multidisciplinary enterprise in which archaeologists and agricultural scientists have been joined by evolutionary biologists and population geneticists (2, 9).At least five major sets of questions tend to reoccur in the domestication literature. The first three are demographic: (i) When, where, and in how many geographic locations was a given species domesticated? (ii) What were the dispersal routes from the original domestication centers? (iii) To what extent did hybridization between domesticates and local wild relatives occur? The remaining questions relate to adaptation: (i...

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Storytelling and story testing in domestication

Gerbault¹,

Allaby

Boivin

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…His discussion of this New Science can be interpreted as an anticipation of the recently developing discourse on post-normal science [17,75,76,80,81]. Post-normal science takes its name from the Kuhnian concepts of normalscience and scientific revolution [82], with the revolutionary proposition of post-normal science being that "under certain conditions, ''normal'' puzzle-solving science is not a scientific approach, because sometimes the puzzle in question cannot be solved" [14,75,83]. Coming from within the fact-based discourse of science, the ensuing proposition, that it is necessary to democratize expertise concerning some types of complex, late-industrial scientific problems [81,84], presents a logically grounded position from which to resist the tendency of hard scientific facts to achieve the kind of discursive closure we observed in this case.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wind Farm Siting and Protected Areas in Catalonia: Planning Alternatives or Reproducing 'One-Dimensional Thinking'?

Ariza-Montobbio

Farrell

2012

Sustainability

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Abstract:Wind energy is an emblem of sustainability with the potential to promote a qualitative alternative to current energy systems and nuclear options for CO 2 reduction. However, wind farm siting often conflicts with aspirations to conserve traditional landscapes and wildlife habitats. In this paper we adopt a Critical Theory perspective, informed by Herbert Marcuse`s work, to study the discourse concerning wind energy siting in Catalonia, Spain. We give particular attention to how tensions between potentially conflicting sustainability objectives are addressed and by whom. Based on a review of this siting discourse and the application of Marcuse's theory, we find that the Catalan wind energy siting discourse is both influenced by and reproducing what Marcuse referred to as the 'one-dimensional thinking' of technology as ideology: erasing the possibility of critical dialectical thought by subsuming the question of "what should be" under the question of "what is". This has implications both for how these conflicts are investigated and for the sustainability of decisions taken. We conclude that closer attention to the role of 'one-dimensional thinking' in wind energy siting discourses could improve not only the understanding of their logic but might also have the potential to help make them more democratic.

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“…The challenge of countering the wilful ignorance in issues like vaccines, climate change or evolution was profusely discussed with the participation of the audience and a common theme that emerged was the need to be aware that, when forced to decide between values and facts, people will almost always favour the former, and that therefore just throwing facts at audiences will not be of great use in the battle for a scientifically educated society. This is the object of a and important area of research and debate regarding the relationship between science and society, as has been discussed, for example by Allen et al [2001]; Christophorou [2001], Dietz [2013] and Reeves [2016].…”

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confidence: 99%

Hollyweird Science ― A symposium at the 253rd Annual meeting of the American Chemical Society. San Francisco 3 & 4 April 2017

Stengler¹

2017

JCOM

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Science in film is gaining attention from scientists and science communicators. Sixteen experts gathered at the 253rd Annual Meeting of the American Chemical Society to explore the role and relevance of science in film. An audience of researchers, academics and students enjoyed first-hand accounts from filmmakers, science consultants and experts in science communication, who all agreed on the important impact the way science is depicted in film has on education, outreach and the relationship between science and society.

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Dragnet Ecology—“Just the Facts, Ma'am”: The Privilege of Science in a Postmodern World

Cited by 111 publications

References 23 publications

Storytelling and story testing in domestication

Storytelling and story testing in domestication

Wind Farm Siting and Protected Areas in Catalonia: Planning Alternatives or Reproducing 'One-Dimensional Thinking'?

Hollyweird Science ― A symposium at the 253rd Annual meeting of the American Chemical Society. San Francisco 3 & 4 April 2017

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