How do you Interview a River? Translating the Social Role of Natural Entities

• In Event: 50620 - Section on Environmental Sociology Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Table 17: Knowledge, Discourse, and the Environment

Abstract

Dualistic approaches that separate the natural from the social have long been the norm in sociology, but are flawed in an era of ecological crisis where the interconnections between humans and nature have never been thrown into starker relief. Natural entities – animals, plants, and even rivers – are not simply facets of ecology but actors that impact human lives and co-create the human world, and in this sense are social entities too. If we accept this, then natural entities fall under the realm of sociological inquiry – but how might we study them? I outline how it is possible to “interview a river” through translation, which takes four forms: scientific translation (ecological knowledge), cultural translation (collective knowledge), lived translation (local knowledge), and personal translation (experiential knowledge, or positionality). Taken together, these modes of translation let social scientists understand the social roles of a river, and help us include natural entities in the non-dualistic research appropriate for our current moment.

Author

• Taimur Ahmad, University of Wisconsin-Madison