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Short abstract:

Through a Himalayan case study of apiculture we argue — flourishing in the complex, uncertain Anthropocene environments requires critical intersection of democratised technoscience and arts of attentiveness which enable communities to improvise, engage, innovate, find resonant solidarities.

Long abstract:

The establishment of Apis mellifera(AM), or the European honeybee at a beekeeping research station in Western Himalaya was a landmark event in the history of modern beekeeping in South Asia. This history unfolded alongside green revolution through the 1960s. AM was far more productive, scalable, and opened opportunities for migratory beekeeping. Since, the state agriculture universities and state departments extensively promoted AM. But over subsequent decades scientists also observed that the mainstream discourse on modern beekeeping was disproportionately shaped by American and European experience. Among several concerns, within the Himalayan environment AM beekeeping was unsuitable for the majority of smallholders, particularly women.

We produce an in-depth ethnographic account of subsequent research and redesign that the scientists undertook alongside local beekeepers to rework the modern beehive to make it habitable for Apis cerana(AC). In the process they challenged dominant 20th century assumptions in agricultural entomology. Particularly that AC had a “hostile” nature, and tendency to “abscond”. We contend that meaningful technoscience in complex Anthropocene environments cannot be cast in mere scalable templates of practice, embodied in the modern “box of bees”. The revisions to the modern beehive took extensive rural fieldwork, experimentation, and deliberation to situate scientific practice in the specific cultural and ecological milieu. We phrase this exercise as one of renovation. Renovation opens necessary ground for place-based innovation, and highlights the need for a globally connected but decentralised loci of postcolonial technoscience.