Description
Book SynopsisLeaping waterfalls, struggling through rocky shallows, only the strongest salmon survive to spawn a new generation. These remarkable fish seem to be pure nature, unfathomable, all instinct. But are they? For more than a century biologists have tried to unlock the mystery of salmon we know. For sociologist Rik Scarce, salmon represent an opportunity to probe the relationship of science, society, and nature. About Pacific salmon -- a game fish and food source that is protected and manages for economic and environmental abundance -- Scarce writes, \u0022What other living thing receives such extensive attention from science and society, is used in so many ways, yet retains so much of what we would like to think is its 'wild' character?\u0022 He shows how political, bureaucratic, and economic forces have directed salmon science for their own purposes and how control remains a central feature in salmon biology. Identifying a countertrend rooted in environmental activism, Scarce also argues that an ecocentric perspective is gaining ground even as pressures mount simultaneously to save endangered salmon populations and to bring every last salmon to market. Thus, while external forces control much of the biologists' work, a movement is underway to free biology from political and economic pressures. In rich, ethnographic detail, Scarce develops this portrait of a science struggling with nature and itself. The old-line \u0022fisheries biologists\u0022 tell how they work under immense pressure to unravel the unknowns of salmon existence to fulfill objectives of politically-motivated funding agencies. In contrast, the new breed of \u0022conservation biology\u0022 researchers struggles to maintain the genetic diversity of salmon populations while minimizing the ways humans determine the fate of the salmon. Fishy Business provides new ways for regarding about human interactions with other species, from appealing ones like wolves, whales, and redwood tress to less popular ones like snail darters and kangaroo rats. Society struggles to decide what parts of nature matter and why. Ultimately, Scarce argues, nature is a social product: what shall we make of it?
Trade Review"Scarce shines a revealing light on the inner workings of hatcheries, providing the reader an appreciation of human compulsions to domesticate and control-forces that have influenced our knowledge, or lack of knowledge, of salmon and other natural entities. ... Thoroughly researched, eloquently written, and energetically told, this book dares us to explore our relation to nature and our knowing of ourselves." -Pacific Northwest Quarterly "In this book, [Rik Scarce] describes human uses and abuses of Pacific salmon in an attempt to explore the relationship between science, society and nature. He shows how salmon biology has been manipulated in western North America, originally through scientific curiosity, and then exploited for economic gain, causing ongoing strife between factional and ethnic groups and even between nations. He discusses through many interviews with biologists and fishery managers how political, bureaucratic and economic forces have modified and engineered salmon populations for their own purposes by extensive ranching and enhancement of programs, citing examples of the successes and failures that have resulted." -Andrew F. Walker, Environmental Conservation "...Scarce compellingly argues that the emerging field of 'Environmental Sociology' has much to offer. ...Fishy Business is a strong contribution to the growing literature on human/animal relations and Environmental Sociology. Further, in light of the continuing 'Salmon Wars' between Canada and the United States, and other conflicts based upon dwindling 'resources,' Fishy Business is timely and thus well worth a read on that basis alone." -Canadian Journal of Sociology Online
Table of ContentsCONTENTS Acknowledgments 1. NATURE IN THE MAKING Nature's Beginnings Scientists, Rivers, and Salmon Why Salmon? Constructing Nature Classical Social Constructivism: An Overview Macroconstructions and Rationality Rationalization and the Social Construction of Nature Storytelling An Author's Story 2. WHO -- OR WHAT -- IS IN CONTROL HERE? Control, Power, and Salmon Biology Professionalizing Biologists and Salmon: A Brief History Schools of FIsheries Structural Control over Salmon Biology The Political and Economic Milieu Funding Salmon Biology Society and Funding for Salmon Expediency versus Knowledge The Professional Politics of Funding "Bootlegging" Research Conclusion: Biologists as Bartleby 3. BIOLOGISTS IN THE DRIVER'S SEAT Control of Salmon by Salmon Biologists Engineering Salmon Systems Laboratories, Field Research, and Control Quantification and Modeling "Enhancement": Control by Other Means Assessing Enhancement The Interchangeability of Salmon Salmon Biology and Control over Managers Biologists and Managers Conclusion: Salmon and Biology Transformed 4. THINKING AND MAKING SALMON Cognitive and Physical Constructions Cognitive Constructions Physical Constructions Salmon Hatcheries as Political-Economic Instruments Salmon Hatchery Technology Production in Salmon Biology Hatchery Politics Hatchery Economics Certainty, Prediction, and Tooling An Agrarian Model for Fisheries Hatchery Salmon as "Different" The Pro-Hatchery Response New Tools for Tooling Salmon: High-Tech Fish When Salmon Research Themselves The Social Context Genetics and the New Salmon Conclusion: Salmon as Social Fact 5. MYTHOLOGY AND BIOLOGY Science: Myth and the Material Why Mythology? Mythology and Control Mythology and Meaning Contemporary Interpretations of the Myth Concept Mythology's Contradictions Uncertainty and Mythology Uncertainty, Expertise, and Myth Myths and "Bad Science" Funding and Bad Science Distinguishing Fact from Bad Science Bad Science: Some Examples Observer-Created Reality Conclusion: Infinite Control? 6. FREEDOM AND SELF-DETERMINATION IN SALMON BIOLOGY Freedom and Control Freedom in Classical Sociological Theory Control/Power versus Self-Determinism and Freedom Biologists' Struggle for Freedom The Scientific Ideal in an Age of Limits The Importance of Interchangeability Conservation Biology, Freedom, and Self-Determination Conservation Biology: The Core Conservation Biology within Salmon Biology Identification and Ethics Advocacy, Acceptance, and Resistance Commonalities with the Fisheries Perspective Conclusion: Back to the Future 7. SALMON WARS AND THE "NATURE" OF POLITICS Power to the People? Anatomy of a Fish War Capturing a Fugitive with a Treaty The Salmon War Gets Hot Constructing Complete Communities Conclusion: Nature as We Want It to Be 8. CONSTRUCTING NATURE -- AND EXPERIENCING IT Toward a Sociology of Social-Natural Interactions Knowing a Meaningless Nature APPENDIX. METHODS AND RELATED RESEARCH Data Gathering and Analysis for this Study Grounded Theory The Intellectual Heritage: Prior Works Socially Constructing Science and Technology Socially Constructing Nature Catton and Dunlap: The First Social Constructivists of Nature Landscaping Nature Other Understandings The Anticonstructivists A Change of Face Murphy's Failed Critique of Constructivism NOTES INDEX
