Reputations are crucially important to scientists, so it is valuable to examine processes by which reputations come under attack. One potent method is a degradation ritual, an event or process that stigmatises the target and often results in feelings of shame and humiliation. Anthropologists and other scholars from a range of disciplines have examined degradation rituals and ceremonies, but their use in science has received little attention, perhaps because of the focus on the rational features of the issues involved. Degradation rituals can be described in terms of various features, including degrading agents, contexts, means and severity. Attacks on scientists in a variety of fields can be usefully interpreted through the lens of degradation rituals.
When the work and reputation of scientists suffer ritual degradation, a range of tactics can be deployed to resist and rework the psychological and social impacts. Five key resistance tactics to degradation in science are revealing degradation rituals, redeeming the reputation of the targeted scientist, reframing the degradation as unfair, redirecting attention to other domains, and refusing to cooperate with the rituals. These tactics are illustrated through three case studies of scientists targeted for conducting research threatening to the interests of powerful groups. IntroductionThe perceived trustworthiness and competence of scientists are key forms of currency in science that facilitate their careers and standing in the field. Attacks on the reputation of scientists and the quality of their work therefore can have far reaching impacts. These include professional impacts, such as the interruption or destruction of scientific careers, status impacts from loss of qualifications and income, and personal impacts, such as alcoholism, depression, and loss or disruption of relationships with colleagues, friends and family. The adverse impacts of attacks on scientists also include the potential hindrance of scientific innovation, often via the chilling effect on peers who witness the treatment of those targeted.We focus here on one particular way of understanding methods for attacking dissident scientists, namely as a degradation ritual in which the status and honour of an individual are lowered. Such rituals have received relatively little attention, yet they are crucially important when considering the obstacles potentially faced by innovators in the face of a hostile establishment or orthodoxy. We focus on ways of challenging these rituals, something hardly ever analysed, in the hope of offering insight to innovators in all fields.Features of degradation rituals can be classified in terms of the types of agents who enact the rituals, the contexts in which these rituals occur, the means by which degradation rituals are performed, and the impacts or relative severity of the rituals (Thérèse and Martin, 2010). Here we propose a complementary five-part schema to classify and understand tactics of resistance deployed by targets of degradation rituals in science in their attempt to deflect attacks and undo the negative impacts on their personal identity and professional status.Given that stakeholders in current knowledge and practices are often threatened by innovators, and have the resources and authority to impose sanctions, it is to be
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