Using Repertoires to Explore Changing Practices in Recent Coral Research
Ankeny, RA; Leonelli, S
Date: 12 March 2020
Book chapter
Publisher
University of Chicago Press
Abstract
In the last three decades of the twentieth century, scientists working in coral reef
biology documented unprecedented and extensive changes and degradation of reefs
worldwide. This chapter investigates the evolution of coral reef biology research during this
critical period, focusing on the emergence and use in the field of an ...
In the last three decades of the twentieth century, scientists working in coral reef
biology documented unprecedented and extensive changes and degradation of reefs
worldwide. This chapter investigates the evolution of coral reef biology research during this
critical period, focusing on the emergence and use in the field of an “infection repertoire”
which as we document was borrowed from biomedical research. Coral reef biology
researchers borrowed and used this repertoire, recognizing and leveraging critical
institutional factors such as strategies to align their research with national and global funding
priorities, as well as managerial decisions concerning the set-up, infrastructures, and
technologies to be prioritized for the production and circulation of data. These institutional
and managerial characteristics were as crucial to emerging approaches in the field of coral
reef biology as were the conceptual and methodological factors relating to the identification
and investigation of the causes of the changes being observed. The fruitfulness of the diseaserelated explanation of reef damage was not a serendipitous outcome of the application of a
theoretical framework, but rather a well-engineered and deliberate choice made by a coalition
of marine researchers who actively decided to reproduce a certain way of organizing and
conducting research. The field of coral reef research presents an intriguing domain to study to
reflect on practices in marine biology, given its rapid evolution in recent years and because it
has involved researchers from multiple disciplines working together, importing and adapting
resources (including repertoires) from other fields in ways that significantly impacted
ongoing research.
Social and Political Sciences, Philosophy, and Anthropology
Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences
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