Paper short abstract:

Pragmatism and STS grapple with the epistemic preconditions that hold societies together. Sparring with Grounded Theory, I propose a methodological ‘ground truthing’ of democratic experimentalism through heterogeneous cooperation across socially and epistemically different FIELDS.

Paper long abstract:

Pragmatist scholars and STS grapple with the epistemic preconditions that hold societies together. In my talk, I propose to rethink STS approaches to pragmatist political analysis through the lenses of “pragmatogony”, “matters of concern” (Latour), the “engaged program” (Sismondo), as well as “issue making” and “participation” (Marres) through some empirical findings of our FIELDS project (DFG BO 3268/4-1). FIELDS, e.g., "Experiencing Nature and Society. A Multi-Sited Inquiry into Marine and Ethnographic Field Sciences" studies different modes of enacting “fields” as generators of experience-based knowledge through an inter- and transdisciplinary lens. We explore practices and understandings of ethnographic and marine biology concepts of doing field research (e.g., oceanic campaigns and expeditions, marine biological stations) through an experimental framework in which nature and society, humans and non-humans, meet. "FIELDS" is an assemblage term where disciplinary fragmented empirical approaches and actors research ‘in situ’ within determined places. Sparring with Grounded Theory, I propose a methodological ‘ground truthing’ (marine biologist term) through such heterogeneous cooperations across socially and epistemically different marine participants and sectors. Here, translating world-making is examined via actors’ capacities for organizing social cohesion through mutualization practices based on cooperation without consensus (Star). Furthermore, I discuss the political dimension of these practices through an analysis of their situated expertise and implicit knowledge. I conclude my talk with some open questions on the entanglement between epistemic ‘ground truthing’ and public engagement inspired by Dewey’s “democratic experimentalism”.