Zanzu, Serena (2020) Humans, microbes and soils: a multi-sited ethnography. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This thesis is about the formation, circulation and transformation of a specific knowledge that emerges in the scientific laboratory and then travels outside its boundaries. It explores the constitution of the soil microbiome field across multiple kinds of practices, expertise and sets of interests in the UK. While the microbial world is increasingly considered worthy of sociological attention, to date the microbial communities of soil and the humans who co-create the knowledge about them, have received little consideration. This thesis locates its contribution to this under-researched area of study, arguing for a sociological recognition of these invisible and neglected entities as lives that count.

Undertaking a multi-sited ethnography, I follow soil microbiome knowledge as it travels across agricultural fields, scientific practices and policy deliberations. In a recursive shift of positions and sites, I examine the interrelations, ambivalences and complexities of scientific, growing and policy approaches to soil microbial communities. I explore the future-oriented technoscientific attitude of exploitation pervading this field, entangled with farming and sustainability agendas, and the tortuous circulation of this knowledge as it traverses convoluted attempts at policy translations while facing public inattention.

Looking for more speculative possibilities beyond an instrumental view of soil and microscopic life, I argue that the microbial communities of soil also emerge as ineffable entities yet able to assert themselves as embodied and transformative. I consider the possibility of repositioning the human within the soil field where novel microbial entanglements can initiate a process of ‘becoming’ in those who let themselves be moved by microbes. These relationships are continuously reinvented in their potential to alter the scientific questions asked and the way humans and microbes experience and affect the world.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GF Human ecology. Anthropogeography H Social Sciences > HM Sociology Q Science > QR Microbiology S Agriculture > S Agriculture (General)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Soil microbiology -- Sociological aspects, Soils -- Sociological aspects, Knowledge management, Human ecology, Microbial ecology
Official Date:	July 2020
Dates:	Date Event July 2020 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Pettinger, Lynne ; Puig de la Bellacasa, María
Sponsors:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain)
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	226 leaves : illustrations
Language:	eng

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