Science and Nature: positions and logics of discourse Political and sociological constructions of knowledge of maize seen in the prism of the “Global Project on primitive maize varieties” (Mexico, 2006-2010) - Gérard, Etienne (2014)
This essay, based on a brief ethnography of a Mexican ministerial project on maize, deals with two major factors determining the treatment of the preservation and conservation of maize as a national resource. On the one hand this issue is a political construct; on the other hand it has been constrained by the organisation of science in Mexico; and the patterns of this organisation (its structure and hierarchies) have been determined by the orientations of the political construct. Our study shows that because of this dual conditioning, knowledge of maize produced within the framework of the ministerial project has undergone a quadruple deformation or “twist”. Firstly, it is based (at least to some extent) on the positions occupied by stakeholders in the organisation that administers science and in the field of knowledge. Secondly, the hierarchy of knowledge is based on a segmentation of research processes: the knowledge of maize produced results first and foremost from technical operations and treatments, with its socio-economic and — even more so —symbolic dimensions being allowed at best to provide illustrations. Thirdly, this body of knowledge has undergone a ranking procedure: agronomy predominates; sociology, economics and anthropology have a secondary status. Last but not least, the knowledge produced has been formatted by the categorisation and segmentation of political ideas concerning maize, which assign to research the merely utilitarian functions of conservation (with maize being treated as a mere asset), and of improvement (of its varieties); no attention is paid to another function: that of understanding the socio-economic factors conditioning production and improvement maize, with a view to the future. In sum, an ethnological study of projects such as the Proyecto global de los maíces nativos shows that it is impossible for “scientific” and “traditional” knowledge to meet unless there is a dialogue between them; comprehension has always to be a political and sociological construct.
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Keywords: report; technical report; Rapport scientifique; Mexique - maïs - construction sociale des savoirs - sociologie