Utopian Conservation: Scientific Humanism, Evolution, and Island Imaginaries on the Galápagos Islands

Bocci, Paolo

doi:10.1177/0162243919889135

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…1. Other research stemming in part from the Call for this special section includes Bocci (2019) who traces science imaginaries through material assemblages of human and other-than-human actors, and Skjølsvold et al (2020) who discuss material and social traits that make islands favorable for innovation activities. 2.…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Island Imaginaries: Introduction to a Special Section

Gugganig

Klimburg-Witjes

2021

Science as Culture

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Colonial empires, scientists, philanthropists and Hollywood studios have long sustained an image of islands as remote places with unique ecologies and cultures, experimental labs, or loci of escapism. The climate crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic have contributed to a predominant view of islands as both exceptional spaces and testbeds to be scaled up onto continental or planetary levels. Likewise, the metaphor of the island is foundational to Western thought yet has been less explored in the context of scientific processes and technology development. Bringing together science and technology studies (STS) with critical Island Studies and related fields, this special section expands upon the spatial dimension of sociotechnical imaginaries to consider islands and their imaginations as both preexisting and channeling visions of science and technology. The introduced concept of Island Imaginaries captures the mutual constitution of island visions and their materialization in scientific, technological and technocratic endeavors that are imagined and pursued by scientific communities, policymakers, and other social collectives. Such an approach explores the co-constitutive dynamic of islands as sites for the foundation of technoscientific knowledge regimes, and the concomitant rendering of islands as conducive places for discovery and experimentation. The special section offers empirical case studies with insights into islands as synecdoche for larger wholes (the Earth), as experimental and exceptional sites for trialing business creation and political orders (in Singapore, and for Asia), and as variously interpreted laboratory paradise (of Hawai'i). Further research themes for STS are suggested in the Conclusion.

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Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%