Citizen science networks in natural history and the collective validation of biodiversity data.

Biodiversity data are in increasing demand to inform policy and management. A substantial portion of these data is generated in citizen science networks. To ensure the quality of biodiversity data, standards and criteria for validation have been put in place. We used interviews and document analysis from the United Kingdom and The Netherlands to examine how data validation serves as a point of connection between the diverse people and practices in natural history citizen science networks. We found that rather than a unidirectional imposition of standards, validation was performed collectively. Specifically, it was enacted in ongoing circulations of biodiversity records between recorders and validators as they jointly negotiated the biodiversity that was observed and the validity of the records. These collective validation practices contributed to the citizen science character or natural history networks and tied these networks together. However, when biodiversity records were included in biodiversity-information initiatives on different policy levels and scales, the circulation of records diminished. These initiatives took on a more extractive mode of data use. Validation ceased to be collective with important consequences for the natural history networks involved and citizen science more generally.

Putting a spin on circulating reference, or how to rediscover the scientific subject.

Bruno Latour claims to have shown that a Kantian model of knowledge, which he describes as seeking to unite a disembodied transcendental subject with an inaccessible thing-in-itself, is dramatically falsified by empirical studies of science in action. Instead, Latour puts central emphasis on scientific practice, and replaces this Kantian model with a model of "circulating reference." Unfortunately, Latour's alternative schematic leaves out the scientific subject. I repair this oversight through a simple mechanical procedure. By putting a slight spin on Latour's diagrammatic representation of his theory, I discover a new space for a post-Kantian scientific subject, a subject brilliantly described by Ludwik Fleck. The neglected subjectivities and ceaseless practices of science are thus re-united.

A passagem do humano ao número na construção da toxoplasmose pela lógica das ciências humanas / From human to number in the construction of toxoplasmosis from the logic of the human sciences

Este artigo decorre de estudo empírico analítico realizado num laboratório de biologia, para investigar a construção do conhecimento científico no processo de extração do DNA relacionado à toxoplasmose. As etapas dessa construção foram acompanhadas, desde a seleção dos humanos até suas transformações em números. O conceito de referência circulante, de Latour, junto com os utilizados por Hacking para explicar a construção dos objetos da ciência, ideias, marcas e coisas foram fundamentais para a compreensão da passagem dos humanos aos números. Acredita-se que este estudo contribuirá para reduzir a acriticidade quanto à construção dos objetos da ciência. Reitera-se que os números/marcas seriam problemáticos como únicas referências em intervenções na saúde.

Based on an empirical analytical study conducted in a biology laboratory, the article investigates the construction of scientific knowledge in the process of toxoplasma DNA extraction. It accompanies all stages in the construction of this knowledge, from selection of humans through their transformation into numbers. Latour's concept of circulating reference, along with the concepts Hacking employs to explain the construction of the objects of science and of ideas, marks, and things, are vital to understanding this shift from human to number. The present study hopes to stimulate a more critical attitude towards the construction of the objects of science. It also stresses that it would be problematic to use numbers or marks as our sole references in health interventions.