Smoothing, striating and territorializing: The assembling of ‘science in the making’

Abstract

Drawing on a rich two-year ethnographic study that followed evolutionary biologists in their everyday work, this paper explores the making of scientific knowledge through the spatial conceptual imagery developed by Deleuze and Guattari (1987). In particular, this paper focuses on a field expedition to the South Pacific and investigates how different rhythms, forces and intensities are harmonized and assembled in the production of scientific knowledge. Within this setting, maintaining a balance between striating and smoothing forces is an important, yet difficult task. On many occasions, alternative rhythms and 'tropical forces' jeopardized the success of the expedition, despite the scientists' best efforts to formalize the research process and bring the striations of the laboratory into the forest. Paradoxically, these challenges also played a key role in the inquiry as they opened new possibilities and ultimately led to more intense engagements with the tropical forest and its rhythms and spatiality.

The architecture of the hybrid lab: Spacing graphene research

“…Reinforcing the importance of laboratory ethnography in scientific workspaces, Stephens and Lewis (2017) argue that attending to the rhythms of day-to-day work of scientists and the flows of matter better allows capturing their work as accomplished through interaction, set in and through spaces and rhythms. Similarly, tracing the complex relationship between spatialities and ‘science in the making’, Aroles and McLean (2019) trace how space matters in the everyday work of evolutionary biologists and argue that the different rhythmicity reshapes the direction of the scientific inquiry and the articulation of knowledge. Shifting attention to the design and planning processes behind scientific buildings, Vinck and Zarama’s (2011) ethnography of a nanoscience lab follows how spatial arrangements are shaped before the building’s construction and continue to be heterogeneous, fragmented and fragile after its completion; in the course of laboratory life researchers and spaces are mutually transformed.…”

‘Becoming mainstream’: the professionalisation and corporatisation of digital nomadism

“…The State is seen as seeking to exert control over space by striating smooth spaces; ‘sedentary states have always sought to control the nomadic flows of labour’ (Noyes, : 162). In contrast, smooth spaces are characterised by a revolutionary potential, as they seek to undo problematic over‐codification and striations in order to open up and actualise new possibilities and territories (see Aroles and McLean, ).…”

Digital Nomads in the Mediterranean Tourism Hub

“…The advancement of digital infrastructures and the integration of mobile communication into daily life has significantly changed the contours of the workplace, opening the possibility of new flexible work arrangements (Brocklehurst 2001;Messenger and Gschwind 2016;Aroles and McLean 2019;Kingma 2019). High-speed Internet connectivity facilitated communication, and workers no longer relied on sitting in the office from nine to five to complete their tasks.…”