Science on social media

by Reuben Message, PhD candidate at LSE Sociology I’m often intrigued and frustrated, in equal measure, by the way people react to scientific research findings in my social networks. While it is not surprising, it is especially remarkable to observe how often people choose to share stories in which findings are reported that seem to confirm their prejudices

Animal welfare chauvinism in Brexit Britain:A genealogy of care and control

This paper uses the deployment of animal welfare as an issue during the ‘Brexit’ referendum as a lens through which to explore the mutual shaping of discourses about care for animals in Britain and the British nation, or the nationalism of animal welfare. Adopting a genealogical outlook, it uses one political advertisement in particular—paid for by the official Vote Leave campaign—as a focalising image and means of opening up the issues, leading to an empirical emphasis on the issue of live animal export as it has mediated ideas about Europe and British identity. Introducing the idea of ‘animal welfare chauvinism’, the paper suggests that animal welfare messages in the context of this constitutional debate were products of chauvinistic and caring impulses which are mutually constitutive and crystallised through discourses formed in relation to contingent historical struggles. Analytically, stress is placed on the constructive role of situated and repeated discursive exchanges, occurring between animal advocates and other national political elites, within which ‘care for animals’ as a national ideal is forged. In this light, the article concludes with reflections on the stakes of entering into an already existing conversation on the ‘national culture of care’ for animals in Britain

The good aquarist:Morality, emotions and expectations of care in zebrafish aquariums

Zebrafish are one of the most important species used in contemporary bioscience research. As vertebrates, they have, in the UK, the same legal or welfare protections as other commonly used animals like rats, mice, and rabbits. However, the human–animal relationships that emerge between animal technologists and zebrafish are different to the case of relations between terrestrial mammals. What does this mean in terms of care relations? Specifically, this chapter investigates how animal technologists who work with fish (aquarists) navigate the disjuncture between their embodied experiences of caring for zebrafish and the social expectations around empathy and inter-species bonding that increasingly accompany regulatory discourses and ideas of professional identity and responsibility in the wider animal technology and welfare arena. In this light, the chapter focuses on how aquarists conceive of and present themselves as moral agents in the relative absence of the kinds of emotional attachment typically seen as desirable, and the experience of which might normally be expected to act as signs of moral and professional virtue. Concretely then, this paper empirically investigates some of the quotidian activities, attitudes, and modes of speaking adopted by aquarists who, like all animal technologists, wish to do good and be perceived as doing so – despite the ambivalence of their personal experiences and the specificity of human–fish relations in the research aquarium

'To assist, and control, and improve, the operations of nature': fish culture, reproductive technology and social order in Victorian Britain

This thesis investigates the development of fish culture technology in Victorian Britain. Fish culture included artificial propagation (breeding, incubation and rearing) of fish, as well as the other material practices, forms of regulation, social organisation and discourses that constituted freshwater fisheries conservation in Britain, circa 1830 – 1870. The approach taken is based in both the sociology of science and technology and social history. Fish culture is viewed as an innovative reproductive technology, and positioned as part of the “preHhistory” of modern reproduction. Focusing on the generative interactions of the social and piscine worlds of fish culture, empirical analyses of the social relations or social order of a technology, and its coHconstitution with the society of which it was part are conducted. Focus is also placed specifically on social conflicts of different kinds. These conflicts emerged out of existing social and economic tensions connected to the fisheries and the scientific study of fish – which were themselves connected to wider economic, demographic and political developments in British society in which social hierarchies of different kinds were being challenged and thus also defended and remade. Empirical case studies focus on these conflicts as socio-technical processes involving rivalry over scarce goods – ideal and material – and, specifically, how they were resolved or ameliorated such that social orders were achieved, modified and reproduced. The thesis is positioned as a contribution to the social studies of reproduction, to science and technology studies, and to the substantive sociological and historical understanding of a socio-technical practice of historical interest and, in the form of modern aquaculture, of growing contemporary importance

Edge cases in animal research law:Constituting the regulatory borderlands of the UK's animals (scientific procedures) act

This paper explores how the boundaries of the UK's Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (A(SP)A) are constituted, as illustrative of the rising importance of legal procedures around animal research and how these are continuously being challenged and questioned. Drawing on empirical work in animal research communities, we consider how it is decided whether activities are undertaken for an “experimental or other scientific purpose”. We do this by focusing on “edge cases”, where debates occur about whether to include an activity within A(SP)A's remit. We demonstrate that the boundaries of animal research regulation in the UK are products of past and present decisions, dependencies, and social relationships. Boundaries are therefore not clear-cut and fixed, but rather flexible and changing borderlands. We particularly highlight the roles of: historical precedent; the management of risk, workload, and cost; institutional and professional identities; and research design in constituting A(SP)A's edges. In doing so, we demonstrate the importance of paying attention to how, in practice, animal law requires a careful balance between adhering to legal paragraphs and allowing for discretion. This in turn has real-world implications for what and how science is done, who does it, and how animals are used in its service

Bitcoin: alternative currencies reloaded, part two

The Sociology Forum event held in January 2014 attracted a large audience to hear the panel discussion on Bitcoin and what is sociologically interesting about this alternative cryptocurrency. This post summarises the lively debate that ensued. by Sian Lewin, Paz Concha, Mona Sloane and Reuben Message

Animal Research beyond the Laboratory:Report from a Workshop on Places Other than Licensed Establishments (POLEs) in the UK

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. Research involving animals that occurs outside the laboratory raises an array of unique challenges. With regard to UK legislation, however, it receives only limited attention in terms of official guidelines, support, and statistics, which are unsurprisingly orientated towards the laboratory environment in which the majority of animal research takes place. In September 2019, four social scientists from the Animal Research Nexus program gathered together a group of 13 experts to discuss nonlaboratory research under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (A(SP)A) of 1986 (mirroring European Union (EU) Directive 2010/63/EU), which is the primary mechanism for regulating animal research in the UK. Such nonlaboratory research under the A(SP)A often occurs at Places Other than Licensed Establishments (POLEs). The primary objective of the workshop was to assemble a diverse group with experience across a variety of POLEs (e.g., wildlife field sites, farms, fisheries, veterinary clinics, zoos) to explore the practical, ethical, and regulatory challenges of conducting research at POLEs. While consensus was not sought, nor reached on every point of discussion, we collectively identified five key areas that we propose require further discussion and attention. These relate to: (1) support and training; (2) ethical review; (3) cultures of care, particularly in nonregulated research outside of the laboratory; (4) the setting of boundaries; and (5) statistics and transparency. The workshop generated robust discussion and thereby highlighted the value of focusing on the unique challenges posed by POLEs, and the need for further opportunities for exchanging experiences and sharing best practice relating to research projects outside of the laboratory in the UK and elsewhere

Amphibious ethics and speculative immersions: laboratory aquariums as a site for developing a more inclusive animal geography.

Human capacity to sense and respond to the suffering of non-human animals is key to animal care and welfare. Intuitively these modes of relating seem best suited to interactions between humans and warm-blooded mammals who share human-like facial features and characteristics. Animal geographers and those working in animal welfare have noted the challenges that humans face in learning to care about fishes, and how this leads to welfare guidelines and regulations which are poorly suited to aquatic species. This paper draws on interviews with laboratory aquarists and biomedical researchers to explore how they have learnt to sense and respond to the needs of fishes in the laboratory. We offer two key observations. Firstly, despite significant bodily differences, humans find ways to empathise with fishes. Secondly, whilst observations of bodies and behaviours predominate in laboratory mammal welfare assessments, when working with fishes water quality serves as an important proxy for species health. We conclude that the laboratory aquarium signifies methodological and conceptual limits in contemporary animal geographies. We further argue that these barriers should be understood as cultural, and – as we demonstrate – that there is consequently scope and capacity to reach beyond them by engaging in amphibious ethics and speculative immersions