Department of Sociology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA.
Cooperative Institute for Mesoscale Meteorological Studies, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA.
Br J Sociol. 2021 Mar;72(2):379-396. doi: 10.1111/1468-4446.12762. Epub 2020 Jun 1.
Drawing from theory on the "co-production" of science and society, this paper provides an account of trajectories in US climatology, roughly from the 1850s to 1920, the period during which climatology emerged as an organized branch of meteorology and government administration. The historical narrative traces the development of climatology both as a professional/institutional project and as a component of a larger governmental logic. Historical analysis of climatologists' scientific texts, maps, and social organization within government provides a sociological explanation for the emergent "stabilization" of climate as a geographic-statistical category. Climatic stability, defined by the view that climate is unchanging, was advanced over this period in a way that linked the interests and practices of climatologists to actors invested in facilitating and administrating commercial agriculture and trade. I position the logic of climatology and the discourse of climatic stability historically, with reference to prior concern with climate change and, in recent decades, efforts to govern global warming through geoengineering climatic stability.
本文借鉴了关于“科学与社会的共同生产”的理论，描述了美国气候学的发展轨迹，大致从 19 世纪 50 年代到 20 世纪 20 年代，这一时期气候学作为气象学和政府管理的一个分支而出现。历史叙述追溯了气候学作为一个专业/机构项目以及作为更大的政府逻辑的一个组成部分的发展。对气候学家的科学文本、地图以及政府内部的社会组织的历史分析，为气候作为一个地理-统计类别而出现的“稳定化”提供了一种社会学解释。气候稳定性是指气候不变的观点，在这一时期，气候学家的利益和实践与投资于促进和管理商业农业和贸易的行为体联系在一起。我从历史的角度定位了气候学的逻辑和气候稳定性的话语，参考了之前对气候变化的关注，以及近几十年来通过地球工程气候稳定性来治理全球变暖的努力。
