Week 3 Reflection

The authors from this week’s readings primarily focused on connections between climate activism, environmental studies, and feminism, though there was a lot of theory-heavy explanation that both made concepts a bit more difficult to follow but also definitely elevated the level of research and scientific sophistication behind these ideas thinking about them as tested and analyzed theories rather than ungrounded ideas.  In Backtrand’s “Civic Science for Sustainability: Reframing the Role of Experts, Policy-Makers and Citizens in Environmental Governance,” the author discusses the participatory dynamics of science fields, both in terms of policy making and the ways in which people outside of the field can make themselves participants through civic science. This concept aims to increase public participation in terms of the production and use of scientific information.  

These readings were particularly impactful because there was some discussion regarding the role of average citizens in the fight to protect our environment.  It is again another reminder that it is not just up to scientists and activists and politicians to be active in this fight, but that the collective voice of concerned citizens can fuel the movement just as powerfully.  The readings also discussed the importance of recognizing women’s contributions to the fields of environmental studies and science in general, rather than passing them over as the male scholars soak in all the recognition and praise.  However, the message of some of these readings versus the actual construction felt a bit contradictory. Authors like Backtrand advocate for average citizens to participate, and Hathaway advocates for those women participants to get their fair share of recognition, but the language of these texts were not super accessible to someone who does not have a strong background in science and made getting involved feel even more futile, as if the information necessary to be a big contributor is kind of rigged and kept amongst the top scholars and not really disseminated in a way that makes it easy for people to understand and want to care more or get inspired to make change.  

One of the most important key words to me this week was civic science, which refers to “a science that is developed and enacted by the citizens, who are not trained as conventional scientists.”  In Haraway’s article, she discusses the term feminist objectivity, which refers to “a set of situated knowledges” or information situated in context. Another important term that came up was STS, which Sedeno defines as a multidiscipline where scholars look at different science and technology related issues from various perspectives across different disciplines.  From this perspective, they can therefore grapple with political, social, cultural, and ethical concerns surrounding emerging and existing technologies.