The Right Tool for the Job? Modeling, Spatial Relationships, and Styles of Scientific Practice in the UK Foot and Mouth Crisis

Bibliographic Data

ID4475433
AuthorsKaren Bickerstaff (0000-0002-7618-1384, University of East Anglia), Peter Simmons (0000-0003-1078-3101, University of East Anglia)
Year2004
Volume22
Issue3
Pages393-412
Publication date2004-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning D Society and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0263-7758 • E-ISSN: 1472-3433
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1068/d344t
OpenAlexW2133170635
LanguageEN
Citations received36
References cited25

In this paper we explore the expert controversy over the management of a major rural risk issue, the foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak that affected the United Kingdom in 2001, and in particular the role of predictive epidemiological modeling in the decisionmaking process. We pose the questions of why this technique was identified as the right tool for the job by government and why, at the same time, its use was so fiercely contested by other experts in animal health. To set our analysis in context we outline briefly the causes, characteristics, and consequences of FMD together with its history in the United Kingdom. We then provide an account of the 2001 FMD outbreak and the policies that were employed to control the epidemic. In the main discussion we integrate the geographical concept of spatial practices with the concept, drawn from the sociology of scientific knowledge, of styles of scientific practice and apply this to the analysis of the knowledge practices and arguments of the scientific groups that advised on controlling the epidemic. We analyse the key differences between expert groups and their policy recommendations in terms of their different styles of scientific spatial practice. In the rhetorical boundary work of the opposing scientific groups we see these differences in 'style' being invoked to delineate the boundaries of 'sound science' and thereby legitimate their respective policy prescriptions. We conclude by discussing the relationship between styles of scientific spatial practice and recent trends in government policy style and its implications for future risk policy

Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Geography · Government (linguistics · Political science · Public relations · Rhetorical question · Scientific evidence · Social science · Sociology · Sociology of scientific knowledge · Style (visual arts · Work (physics · Animal Disease Management and Epidemiology · Engineering · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Zoonotic diseases and public health

Tools

Open DOISci-HubOpen Access