Graduate student Nathan Woods, supervised by Dr. Michael Blim, will undertake qualitative and quantitative anthropological research on efforts by environmental scientists to build regional networks amongst three graduate interdisciplinary environmental sciences programs (funded by NSF through the Intergrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship or IGERT program) on the Pacific Coast of the U.S. Environmental research bears the burden of providing multidisciplinary solutions to problems spanning a diverse array of experts and ecosystems. For regions like the Pacific Slope, with strong ties to the administration of nature, and a changing reliance on natural amenities, innovation in environmental sciences holds a special significance.
To understand how professional environmental networks are regionally integrated, and how this affects research and environmental practice, this project focuses on how scientific knowledge is communicated from scientists to expert practitioners and examines how and to what extent innovation in science is built as new cultural relationships between degrees of expertise. Employing a mixed method approach, the researcher will examine the cultivation of professional relationships by scientists as a response to innovation. Utilizing a social network survey and participant observation, he will examine how the introduction of innovation translates into relationships between academic scientists and experts. He will use archival research and interviews to examine changing expectations regarding regionally important and innovative scientific projects in environmental research. and to explore the trajectory of networking scientists use to carve out a course of professionalization under conditions of regional change.
This research is important because it provides a comparative analysis of how environmental experts utilize the existing research infrastructure to mobilize scientific projects. Further research and education will be enhanced by highlighting the institutional scale at which innovations are incorporated into environmental research through the maintenance and use of professional relationships. The research also will contribute significantly to the education of a social scientist.
