Title | Biodiversity Datadiversity |
Publication Type | Journal Article |
Authors | Bowker, Geoffrey C. |
Journal | Social Studies of Science |
Volume | 30 |
Issue | 5 |
Pagination | 643-683 |
ISSN | 0306-3127, 1460-3659 |
Abstract | Biodiversity is a data-intense science, drawing as it does on data from a large number of disciplines in order to build up a coherent picture of the extent and trajectory of life on earth. This paper argues that as sets of heterogeneous databases are made to converge, there is a layering of values into the emergent infrastructure. It is argued that this layering process is relatively irreversible, and that it operates simultaneously at a very concrete level (fields in a database) and at a very abstract one (the coding of the relationship between the disciplines and the production of a general ontology). Finally, it is maintained that science studies as a discipline is able to (and should) make a significant contribution to the design of robust and flexible databases which recognize this performative character of infrastructure. |
Notes | 'Bowker describes the need for databases that can capture the historicity and context of data - an information infrastructure that is attentive to the conflicts that diverse communities of practice bring to research data. I also find this article important because Bowker makes the argument that you cannot have data without something to store it in - some way to name it. You cannot have data without some classification system. This is a limit to information design - similar to that with Cornell describes.\n - poiril' |
URL | http://sss.sagepub.com/content/30/5/643 |
DOI | 10.1177/030631200030005001 |