Let me start out by introducing myself. My name is Tom Nevins, and I am a cultural anthropologist. I've started this blog with the intent of exploring the role of Science and the sciences in political debate. The blog is an outgrowth of my research on the language of climate change skepticism. I am principally concerned with the rhetoric of climate skepticism and the claims made by skeptics that their views (and not those "alarmists") are supported by science and scientific methodology. But since "Science" plays a role in many different public policy and political debates, I will be interested in exploring any issue where there are a multitude of skeptics of and claimants to scientific knowledge and authority.
I'll be discussing the various influences on my work in later postings. For now I would like to single out Bruno Latour's Politics of Nature as starting point for thinking about Science and politics. Of great interest to me is the contrast Latour draws between the politics that emerges in relation to "Science" and "Nature," and what he is proposing as recomposed politics within a "Political Ecology." I don't agree with Latour on some issues, but I find his work nevertheless compelling as I try to understand the complex uses made of "Science" in contemporary political debates.
