Description
Book SynopsisThe Technocratic Antarctic is an ethnographic account of the scientists and policymakers who work on Antarctica. In a place with no indigenous people, Antarctic scientists and policymakers use expertise as their primary model of governance. Scientific research and policymaking are practices that inform each other, and the Antarctic environmentwith its striking beauty, dramatic human and animal lives, and specter of global climate changenot only informs science and policy but also lends Antarctic environmentalism a particularly technocratic patina.
Jessica O'Reilly conducted most of her research for this book in New Zealand, home of the Antarctic Gateway city of Christchurch, and on an expedition to Windless Bight, Antarctica, with the New Zealand Antarctic Program. O'Reilly also follows the journeys Antarctic scientists and policymakers take to temporarily Antarctic places such as science conferences, policy workshops, and the international Antarctic Treaty meetings in
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This book offers a focused 'ethnographic account' of those who provide scientific expertise and environmental governance on all matters pertaining to Antarctica. In O'Reilly's work, the scientific and policy practices described emerge from 'historical, moral, and political contexts' that help determine the scope and nature of managing Antarctica.... This book serves as a fine resource for those seeking more information about Antarctica and aspects of its environmental policy. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.
-- R. A. Delgado Jr., National Institutes of Health * CHOICE *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
1. The Imagined Antarctic
2. The Environmental History of the Antarctic
3. Sensing the Ice
4. Samples and Specimens at Antarctic Biosecurity Borders
5. Managing Antarctic Science in an Epistemic Technocracy
6. Tectonic Time and Sacred Geographies in the Larsemann Hills
7. Charismatic Data and Climate Change
Conclusion: The Technocratic Governance of Nature
