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Epistemic Fencelines Air Monitoring Instruments and Expert-Resident Boundaries
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Epistemic Fencelines Air Monitoring Instruments and Expert-Resident Boundaries

Gwen Ottinger
Spontaneous generations, v 3(1)
11 Jan 2010
DOI: https://doi.org/10.4245/sponge.v3i1.6115
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://doi.org/10.4245/sponge.v3i1.6115View
Published, Version of Record (VoR) Open

Abstract

Arts & Humanities History & Philosophy Of Science
Scientific instruments can help to shape and re-shape epistemic boundaries, especially those between communities of scientific researchers. But how do they function at boundaries between scientific communities and communities of non-experts? This paper examines the use of air monitoring instruments at the boundary between petrochemical facilities and nearby residential communities, asking whether a new generation of fenceline monitors shared by industry (and regulatory agency) experts and community members alter the epistemic boundary between the two groups. Arguing that epistemic communities organized around instruments are characterized, in part, by a common understanding of the evidential contexts for instrumental data, the paper shows how the evidential contexts in which experts and residents interpret monitoring data diverge. Instead of the new, shared fenceline monitors helping to reconcile differences over evidential contexts, those pre-existing contexts shape the interpretation of data from the new instruments-perpetuating epistemic boundaries between industry experts and community members.

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Web of Science research areas
History & Philosophy Of Science
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