Scientific Fieldwork Research Articles

Making do with less: fieldwork by the first female recipients of the Percy Sladen Memorial Fund between 1905–1950 (Patron's Review 2020)

The Percy Sladen Memorial Fund provides an ideal focus for examining the changing access to funded scientific fieldwork experienced by women in the early twentieth century. The fund was endowed by Constance Sladen (née Anderson) in 1904 in memory of her late husband, the zoologist Walter Percy Sladen. In its first forty-five years, the fund supported an enormous volume of scientific research, with awards made not only to renowned female researchers, but also to women who remain poorly known. In its first year, the fund made awards to both male and a female recipient, but up to 1950 the number of grants given to men (86%) far exceeded those given to women (11%). Despite more openings in the scientific establishment for women in the first half of the twentieth century, they still experienced restricted access to international fieldwork. Examining fieldwork conducted by female awardees highlights women’s changing opportunities and the uneven distribution of support they received from the scientific establishment. It also shows the ingenuity and thrift female researchers employed to make their monies last and how female peer support networks were often crucial to making fieldwork possible.

The Theoretical, Field and Educational Problems of the Arab Researcher A Case Study of the Algerian Researcher in Information and Communication Sciences Specialty

Social human research and studies are of particular importance as they are considered the only scientific and methodologically accepted way to achieve objective facts that can contribute to the progress and prosperity of society and find solutions to its issues. However, conducting these researches encounter a number of methodological, field, administrative, social and even human difficulties. Indeed, there is no methodological part of any fieldwork that has not mentioned the problems experienced by the researcher while doing his or her scientific fieldwork, but the types of challenges differ from one society to another. This research paper seeks to know the researcher’s legal status and track his or her relationship to field research by understanding the privacy of the community in terms of carrying out research and also determining the researcher’s position in the digital world

Microplastics in Arctic waters of the Finnish Sámi area

We explored the presence of microplastics in the Finnish Arctic Sámi home area. A dialogue between Indigenous knowledge and scientific field work produced data about microplastics in remote wilderness aquatic ecosystems. Methods included geographical Indigenous knowledge analysis, water sampling with fraction filtration, and imaging Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The MPs found were small; the mean particle size was 126 ± 121 μm. Particle concentrations of MPs in freshwater and marine samples varied between 45 and 423 MPs m−3 and the most common polymer types were polyethylene, polypropylene, and polyethylene terephthalate. In conclusion, because microplastics are present even in the wilderness areas, their abundance should be monitored to assess plastic pollution in the relatively pristine Arctic environments. Sámi Indigenous knowledge proved to be a beneficial and important initiator, because locals recognize the possible sources and transport pathways of plastic litter, and practical sampling sites in the complex freshwater systems of the area.

Mapping scientific fieldwork data: a potential tool for improving and strengthening Antarctic Specially Protected Areas as an effective measure for protecting Antarctic biodiversity

Mapping scientific fieldwork data: a potential tool for improving and strengthening Antarctic Specially Protected Areas as an effective measure for protecting Antarctic biodiversity

A call for funding bodies to influence the reduction of environmental impacts in remote scientific fieldwork

A call for funding bodies to influence the reduction of environmental impacts in remote scientific fieldwork

Testing the effectiveness of interactive training on sexual harassment and assault in field science

Fieldwork is a critical tool for scientific research, particularly in applied disciplines. Yet fieldwork is often unsafe, especially for members of historically marginalized groups and people whose presence in scientific spaces threatens traditional hierarchies of power, authority, and legitimacy. Research is needed to identify interventions that prevent sexual harassment and assault from occurring in the first place. We conducted a quasi-experiment assessing the impacts of a 90-min interactive training on field-based staff in a United States state government agency. We hypothesized that the knowledge-based interventions, social modeling, and mastery experiences included in the training would increase participants’ sexual harassment and assault prevention knowledge, self-efficacy, behavioural intention, and behaviour after the training compared to a control group of their peers. Treatment–control and pre-post training survey data indicate that the training increased participants’ sexual harassment and assault prevention knowledge and prevention self-efficacy, and, to a lesser extent, behavioural intention. These increases persisted several months after the training for knowledge and self-efficacy. While we did not detect differences in the effect of the training for different groups, interestingly, post-hoc tests indicated that women and members of underrepresented racial groups generally scored lower compared to male and white respondents, suggesting that these groups self-assess their own capabilities differently. Finally, participants’ likelihood to report incidents increased after the training but institutional reports remained low, emphasizing the importance of efforts to transform reporting systems and develop better methods to measure bystander actions. These results support the utility of a peer-led interactive intervention for improving workplace culture and safety in scientific fieldwork settings.Protocol registration"The stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on August 24, 2022. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21770165.

Interconnectedness and the web of accountabilities: Humboldtian approaches to social and environmental accounting

PurposeCurrent accounting practice tends to split environmental complexities into quantifiable, codified elements, producing codified simplifications of the “complex” in pursuit of environmental externalities. This has led to standardization, but has done little to motivate organizations to engage in more environmentally-aware behavior that transcends the coercive dimensions of codification. The work of Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) can bring new insights and perspectives to social and environmental accounting (SEA). In discussing Humboldt's philosophy of understanding the interconnectedness between people, their contexts (cultures) and their environment, the authors contribute to the emerging SEA literature on notions of interconnectedness and the web of accountabilities. The authors also explore how a Humboldtian approach may help break through the current epistemological boundaries of SEA by combining accurate measurement with imagery to make the “complex” manageable whilst embracing interconnectedness and hermeneutics.Design/methodology/approachIn this conceptual paper, the authors humbly draw on Humboldt's legacy and explore the underlying philosophical assumptions of Humboldtian science. The authors then contrast these with current SEA approaches in the literature and derive new insights into their intentionality and practical use.FindingsRe-examining Humboldt's pioneering work enables us to pinpoint what might be missing from current SEA approaches and debates. Humboldt upheld an “ethics of precision,” which included both measurement accuracy and qualitative relevance, and combined hands-on scientific fieldwork with the aesthetic ideals and interconnectedness of the age of Romanticism. Drawing on Humboldtian science, the authors propose focusing on the interconnectedness of nature and humanity, embracing the qualitative and hermeneutical and including aesthetics and emotion in environmental visualizations.Originality/valueThe paper elucidates why and how Humboldtian science might inform, guide and enhance the emancipatory potential of SEA in the 21st century. Specifically, the authors discuss Humboldt's approach of linking accurate measurement with imagery to convey a sense of interconnectedness.

The Kumaraswamy Distribution: Statistical Properties and Application

Modeling and analyzing lifetime data is an important aspect of statistical work in various scientific and technological fields such as medicine, engineering, insurance, and finance. The modeling and analysis of lifetimes is an important aspect of statistical work in various scientific and technological fields. In recent years, inverted Kumaraswamy distribution has been used quite effectively to model many lifetime data. The most broadly applied statistical distribution is Kumaraswamy distribution in hydrological problems and many natural phenomena. The Kumaraswamy distribution (KD) is widely applied for modeling data in practical domains, such as medicine, engineering, economics, and physics. The present work proposes the Bayesian estimators of KD parameters through the use of type-II censoring data in this research the problem to estimate the unknown parameters of Kumaraswamy distribution with two parameters θ and λ, these estimates are a maximum likelihood of ordered observation and the Bayesian for the parameter of the Kumaraswamy distribution (KUD) depended on ranked set sampling (RSS) techniques. Both the simulated are inserted into real-life data sets and are considered to make a comparison between the estimation based on Maximum Likelihood estimators and Bayesian Estimation methods based on (RSS) techniques. For comparison purposes, we employed (100) mean square error and the criteria like AICC (Akaike information corrected criterion). Finally, the importance and flexibility of the new model of real data set are proved empirically.

Biography of the Mufti Sultanate in West Kalimantan: H. Muhammad Basiuni Imran (1885-1976 AD) and H. Ismail Mundu (1870-1957 AD)

H. Muhammad Basiuni Imran and H. Ismail Mundu are mufti or charismatic clerics who are popular now in the West Kalimantan area. Both lived contemporaneously, and their work in various scientific, social, and political fields has brought them to a level of popularity that is not only in the Malay Archipelago world but also in the Islamic world. Therefore, it is essential to study their biographies, starting with their family background, education, academic career, environment, and work. The method used is the historical method and comparative research. The results of this study are as follows 1) both mufti comes from religious family backgrounds, as seen from the childhood of H. Muhammad Basiuni Imran studied religion from his father, H. Muhammad Imran, while H. Ismail Mundu studied theology with his uncle, H. Muhammad bin H. Ali; 2) the two mufti used the Middle East as their intellectual space. It was seen that H. Muhammad Basiuni Imran performed the hajj and studied simultaneously in Mecca and Egypt, while H. Ismail Mundu performed the hajj three times and only studied in Mecca; 3) both multitasked with explaining to the public religious issues when H. Muhammad Basiuni Imran, as mufti in the Sultanate of Sambas, wrote Tafsir Tujuh Surah and Ayat as-Siyam as a response to the problems faced by the Malay community. Meanwhile, H. Ismail Mundu held the position of mufti in the Kubu Sultanate, writing Bugis translation of the holy book of the Qur’an as a response problem faced by the Bugis people.

The History of Fieldwork

Since the history of fieldwork emerged as a self-conscious area of study within the history of science, especially during the last quarter century, it has expanded its focus on place and practice into an ever wider range of disciplines, social and environmental settings, scales, analytical frameworks, and connections with adjacent disciplines and sub-disciplines. After reviewing some of the foundational scholarly works on the history of scientific fieldwork, this essay identifies and discusses some important recent patterns in scholarship. Historians of fieldwork have increasingly attempted to connect their work to other disciplines such as geography, and to other historical subfields such as environmental history, agricultural history, and the history of capitalism, with increasing success at cross-fertilization despite ongoing tensions arising from significant methodological differences. At the same time, scholars have not only linked their work to a wider variety of social and environmental places, including colonial and postcolonial settings, as well as extreme environments, but have also striven more deliberately to understand the emergence of knowledge through fieldwork at larger scales beyond the local, such as regional, continental, oceanic, and global environments. Scholars have also sought to understand more about the intersection of fieldwork with indigenous, folk, vernacular, and experiential knowledge.

Cinema and the Idea of Fieldwork in Sol Plaatje’s Journeys

AbstractIn the mid-1920s, Solomon Tshekisho Plaatje toured the South African countryside showing films he brought from the Tuskegee Institute in the United States. Plaatje’s cinema tours complemented his educational talks on the status of Africans in the Union of South Africa alongside the material he collected for books, speeches and political tours. Focusing on the itinerant cinema as an element of fieldwork, our article asks what can be learned from approaching Plaatje’s research practices. We consider Plaatje’s methods of research in relation to conventional notions of social scientific fieldwork, which also relied on modern media but were often entangled in colonial projects that projected an image of African rural life. Drawing on letters, novels, and accounts of his film screenings, our essay argues for an interdisciplinary engagement with cinema practices in African history that is attentive to the uses of mass media in research and the pedagogical valences of itinerant film screenings. Considering Plaatje’s cinema alongside the value he attached to travelling and mobility, we argue that his cinema puts the field to work and inspires new practices of research in African Studies.

Bilateral collaboration between the Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat) and United States Research Communities – from a vision to everyday practice

Abstract Each year, hundreds of international researchers enter Greenland to conduct scientific fieldwork. Historically, they have had little interaction with local communities and scientists at Greenland research institutes. Recognising that collaboration between Greenland and the United States can yield better research, consider more diverse perspectives, articulate the benefits of research to Greenland society, and train the next generation in a collaborative framework, representatives from both countries have been engaged in a series of events to cultivate bilateral relationships. Here, we describe the process of these events (workshops, conference sessions, and public dialogues), the findings, and the outcomes that have followed. Prior to this focused engagement, United States and Greenland scientists typically pursued their research independently. Since the engagement, more researchers from both countries have successfully partnered to obtain funding for collaborative research. Furthermore, development of a bilateral collaboration network is underway. The focused approach on bilateral engagement also proved essential for maintaining research and other activities during the global pandemic. When United States researchers were prevented from entering Greenland, their Greenland partners were able to continue the fieldwork, ensuring that progress was not lost. Future international projects can build on these successes to expand collaborative and interdisciplinary research in Greenland.

Enlightenment Strikes! Broadening Graduate School Training through Field Campaign Participation

AbstractThis article provides an overview of the Advanced Study Institute: Field Studies of Convection in Argentina (ASI-FSCA) program, a 3-week dynamic and collaborative hands-on experience that allowed 16 highly motivated and diverse graduate students from the United States to participate in the 2018–19 Remote Sensing of Electrification, Lightning, and Mesoscale/Microscale Processes with Adaptive Ground Observations (RELAMPAGO) field campaign. This program is unique as it represents the first effort to integrate an intensive Advanced Study Institute with a field campaign in atmospheric science. ASI-FSCA activities and successful program outcomes for five key elements are described: 1) intensive field research with field campaign instrumentation platforms; 2) recruitment of diverse graduate students who would not otherwise have opportunities to participate in intensive field research; 3) tailored curriculum focused on scientific understanding of cloud and mesoscale processes and professional/academic development topics; 4) outreach to local K–12 schools and the general public; and 5) building a collaborative international research network to promote weather and climate research. These five elements served to increase motivation and improve confidence and self-efficacy of students to participate in scientific research and field work with goals of increasing retention and a sense of belonging in STEM graduate programs and advancing the careers of students from underrepresented groups as evidenced by a formal program evaluation effort. Given the success of the ASI-FSCA program, our team strongly recommends considering this model for expanding the opportunities for a broader and more diverse student community to participate in dynamic and intensive field work in atmospheric science.

National Antarctic Program responses to fieldwork sexual harassment

AbstractSexual harassment is a common experience for women and those from other underrepresented groups in (white) male-dominated fields such as Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Women are especially vulnerable to sexual harassment during remote scientific fieldwork. To date, most of the limited research on fieldwork harassment has focused on individual experiences. There is an urgent need for research on organizational approaches to fieldwork sexual harassment. This study fills this gap by examining sexual harassment prevention by National Antarctic Programs. It draws on a desktop analysis of 36 National Antarctic Program websites with a focus on the current availability and quality of sexual harassment policies and procedures in expeditioner handbooks/field manuals. Findings show that very few National Antarctic Programs make their expeditioner handbooks/field manuals publicly available (n= 9), and even fewer mention sexual harassment in the documentation or describe how to lodge a complaint (n= 3). This article concludes by offering some reasons as to why National Antarctic Programs may be neglecting this issue. It also provides practical recommendations for developing more substantive content in expeditioner handbooks/field manuals and for building inclusive fieldwork environments for a diverse range of expeditioners.

Learning in the Wild: Fieldwork, Gender, and the Social Construction of Disciplinary Culture

ABSTRACT This paper examines the creation and negotiation of disciplinary culture, through ethnographic fieldwork about socialization in a critical learning environment: scientific fieldwork. Field-based science has received scant research attention relative to its importance as a degree requirement, a professional rite of passage, and a site where sexual harassment and assault are disturbingly commonplace. We conducted a comparative ethnographic case study of two field-based geoscience courses, one each for undergraduate and graduate students. The data include 264 hours of participant-observation and 34 interviews with students and faculty. Three prominent qualities of the culture — eroding temporal and spatial boundaries, navigating challenging conditions, and normalizing alcohol — reflect and/or reinforce disciplinary norms of informality, togetherness, and toughness. We observed these qualities and norms could be leveraged for exclusion or inclusion; they are tools that, together, create a gendered disciplinary culture. Some women resisted the narrow definition of these norms, reframing toughness to include mental toughness, for example. Implications for course design and field leadership, as well as the possibilities and limits of disciplinary cultural change, are discussed.

Encountering/thinking mosquitos

ABSTRACT The essay maps and reflects on some dimensions of human–mosquito interaction in the context of the Arctic and inspired by fieldwork in Finnish Lapland. Rather than developing any particular argument, we seek to document this thinking mosquito as a collection of glimpses, fragments and musings. This impressionistic approach was inspired by conversations among the authors and with environmental humanities scholarship about the roles non-humans play in human worlds, and about how one might engage with mosquitos in thinking about scientific fieldwork, about everyday life in various environments, and about the Arctic more generally. The essay does not provide answers but rather questions, hoping as it does to offer some insights into the complexity of issues that connect mosquito worlds to human worlds. As a mirror to these reflections, we dialogue with excerpts from our own creative written thoughts from the field and from the diaries of German soldiers based in Lapland during the Second World War.

“Useful Knowledge” in Charles-Alexandre Lesueur’s visual and textual accounts of Missouri in 1826

Artist and naturalist Charles-Alexandre Lesueur (1778-1846) valued his work as useful to science generally and to France in particular, including during the time he lived and traveled in North America from 1816 to 1837. Starting with Daniela Bleichmar’s concept of “visual epistemology: a way of knowing based on visuality, encompassing both observation and representation,” this essay claims that Lesueur’s art and scientific practice adhered closely to a belief in the authority of art from direct observation in nature, and they served different professional, educational, community, and potentially commercial purposes. It charts the conditions under which he produced the art, the purpose(s) of the art, the types of art (sketches, paintings, prints, landscape drawings), and the intended audience through four types of subjects from the expedition to Missouri in 1826: the challenges of scientific fieldwork, Blacks in Missouri, lead mining, and inland but especially riverside towns.

Notes of a protein crystallographer: the legacy of J.-B. J. Fourier - crystallography, time and beyond.

The importance of the Fourier transform as a fundamental tool for crystallography is well known in the field. However, the complete legacy of Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768-1830) as a pioneer Egyptologist and premier mathematician and physicist of his time, and the implications of his work in other scientific fields, is less well known. Significantly, his theoretical and experimental work on phenomena related to the transmission of heat founded the mathematical study of irreversible phenomena and introduced the flow of time in physico-chemical processes and geology, with its implications for biological evolution. Fourier's insights are discussed in contrast to the prevalent notion of reversible dynamic time in the early 20th century, which was dominated by Albert Einstein's (1875-1953) theory of general relativity versus the philosophical notion of durée proposed by the French philosopher Henri-Louis Bergson (1859-1941). The current status of the mathematical description of irreversible processes by Ilya Romanovich Prigogine (1917-2003) is briefly discussed as part of the enduring legacy of the pioneering work of J.-B. J. Fourier, first established nearly two centuries ago, in numerous scientific endeavors.

Intelligent design and natural theology

Natural Theology is an attempt to provide arguments for the existence of God based on reason and ordinary experience of nature. It became quite popular with both orthodox Christians and Deists between about 1650 and 1850, inspiring much of the scientific fieldwork done during that period. However, Darwin’s theory of evolution brought about a temporary decline of this Christian apologetic tradition. Intelligent Design is a relatively new scientific research program that investigates the effects of intelligent sources, and challenges basic parts of contemporary Darwinism. Fred Hoyle first issued the ideas of Intelligent Design in modern times when he discovered the unique energy level of the carbon atom in the 1950s. On Copernicus’s 500th birthday in 1973, Brandon Carter presented the discovery that the fundamental constants of physics are fine-tuned to precise values for life permittance. In the 1990s, Michael Behe and others presented arguments for Intelligent Design in molecular biology, and irreducibly complex biochemical machines in living cells. In this paper, we briefly present Intelligent Design and discuss its possible application within a revitalized version of Natural Theology. The paper is mainly written from a scientific perspective.

From war zone to biosphere reserve: the Korean DMZ as a scientific landscape

The Korean DMZ—at once a war zone, a historical landscape and a living laboratory—offers a compelling example of how scientific fieldwork can alter the definition of place. This article explores how scientists introduced new layers of meaning to the region, thereby contributing to shifts in perspective about the border area and to changes in land-use policies there. As early as the mid 1960s, scientists described the DMZ as a scientifically unique and valuable place and argued for setting it aside as a nature reserve; by the late 1990s, the vision of the DMZ as a scientific landscape gained currency both within Korea and internationally and has become central to discussions about the zone's future. This article draws from published and unpublished scientific reports whose authors directly argue for assigning official conservation status to all or part of the DMZ and its border regions; it aims to demonstrate the important role scientists have played in redefining the DMZ through highlighting its environmental and scientific value. The article places these developments within the larger environmental history of Korea, suggesting links between changing emphases in environmental activism and policy-making and evolving ideas about the value and purpose of the DMZ.