Files in this item
Files | Description | Format |
---|---|---|
application/pdf ![]() | (no description provided) |
Description
Title: | Data Infrastructures in Ecology: An Infrastructure Studies Perspective |
Author(s): | Millerand, Florence; Baker, Karen S. |
Subject(s): | environmental
data infrastructure science and technology studies infrastructure studies infrastructuring design data work data management |
Abstract: | The development of information infrastructures that make ecological research data avail¬able has increased in recent years, contributing to fundamental changes in ecological re¬search. Science and Technology Studies (STS) and the subfield of Infrastructure Studies, which aims at informing infrastructures’ design, use, and maintenance from a social science point of view, provide conceptual tools for understanding data infrastructures in ecology. This perspective moves away from the language of engineering, with its discourse on physical structures and systems, to use a lexicon more “social” than “technical” to understand data infrastructures in their informational, sociological, and historical dimensions. It takes a holistic approach that addresses not only the needs of ecological research but also the diversity and dynamics of data, data work, and data management. STS research, having focused for some time on studying scientific practices, digital devices, and information systems, is expanding to investigate new kinds of data infrastructures and their interdependencies across the data landscape. In ecology, data sharing and data infrastructures create new responsibilities that require scientists to engage in opportunities to plan, experiment, learn, and reshape data arrangements. STS and Infrastructure Studies scholars are suggesting that ecologists as well as data specialists and social scientists would benefit from active partnerships to ensure the growth of data infrastructures that effectively support scientific investigative processes in the digital era. |
Issue Date: | 2020 |
Citation Info: | Millerand, F., & Baker, K. S. (2020). Data Infrastructures in Ecology: An Infrastructure Studies Perspective. In ORE (Ed.), Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Environmental Science. USA: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.554. Available at: http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109229. |
Genre: | Article |
Type: | Text |
Language: | English |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2142/109229 |
DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389414.013.554 |
Date Available in IDEALS: | 2021-01-27 |
This item appears in the following Collection(s)
-
Illinois Research and Scholarship (Open Community)
This is the default collection for all research and scholarship developed by faculty, staff, or students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign