A measure of ‘environmental happiness’: Infrastructuring environmental risk in oil and gas off shore operations

We know little about the marine environment, particularly in the inhospitable Arctic region. Whereas national authorities often rely on the construction of a solid knowledge base to allow human activity access to new areas, scientists point to the impossibility of building comprehensive knowledge of...

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Published in:Science & Technology Studies
Main Authors: Parmiggiani, Elena, Monteiro, Eric
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: European Association for the Study of Science and Technology and Finnish Society for Science and Technology Studie 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/article/view/55408
https://doi.org/10.23987/sts.55408
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spelling fttsvojs:oai:journal.fi:article/55408 2024-11-03T14:52:47+00:00 A measure of ‘environmental happiness’: Infrastructuring environmental risk in oil and gas off shore operations Parmiggiani, Elena Monteiro, Eric 2016-02-12 application/pdf https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/article/view/55408 https://doi.org/10.23987/sts.55408 eng eng European Association for the Study of Science and Technology and Finnish Society for Science and Technology Studie https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/article/view/55408/pdf_3 https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/article/view/55408 doi:10.23987/sts.55408 Copyright (c) 2016 Elena Parmiggiani, Eric Monteiro Science & Technology Studies; Vol. 29 No. 1 (2016): Science & Technology Studies. Special Issue: Knowledge Infrastructures: Part I; 30-51 Science & Technology Studies; Vol 29 Nro 1 (2016): Science & Technology Studies. Special Issue: Knowledge Infrastructures: Part I; 30-51 2243-4690 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Research Papers 2016 fttsvojs https://doi.org/10.23987/sts.55408 2024-10-08T15:05:44Z We know little about the marine environment, particularly in the inhospitable Arctic region. Whereas national authorities often rely on the construction of a solid knowledge base to allow human activity access to new areas, scientists point to the impossibility of building comprehensive knowledge of subsea ecosystems. This paper presents an ethnographic study of a Norwegian oil and gas company’s development of a knowledge infrastructure for measuring the long-term trend of the behaviour of the marine environment, i.e. a baseline to be used as a reference to calculate potential risks in a commercially relevant Arctic area. The company’s infrastructuring mechanisms involve selecting and configuring environmental sensing technologies, and tying them into the fabric of the company’s operational analysis routines. We identify and discuss how these mechanisms address and articulate temporal, spatial, and social tensions and how, in so doing, they mould new representations of environmental risk. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Federation of Finnish Learned Societies: Scientific Journals Online Arctic Science & Technology Studies 29 1 30 51
institution Open Polar
collection Federation of Finnish Learned Societies: Scientific Journals Online
op_collection_id fttsvojs
language English
description We know little about the marine environment, particularly in the inhospitable Arctic region. Whereas national authorities often rely on the construction of a solid knowledge base to allow human activity access to new areas, scientists point to the impossibility of building comprehensive knowledge of subsea ecosystems. This paper presents an ethnographic study of a Norwegian oil and gas company’s development of a knowledge infrastructure for measuring the long-term trend of the behaviour of the marine environment, i.e. a baseline to be used as a reference to calculate potential risks in a commercially relevant Arctic area. The company’s infrastructuring mechanisms involve selecting and configuring environmental sensing technologies, and tying them into the fabric of the company’s operational analysis routines. We identify and discuss how these mechanisms address and articulate temporal, spatial, and social tensions and how, in so doing, they mould new representations of environmental risk.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author Parmiggiani, Elena
Monteiro, Eric
spellingShingle Parmiggiani, Elena
Monteiro, Eric
A measure of ‘environmental happiness’: Infrastructuring environmental risk in oil and gas off shore operations
author_facet Parmiggiani, Elena
Monteiro, Eric
author_sort Parmiggiani, Elena
title A measure of ‘environmental happiness’: Infrastructuring environmental risk in oil and gas off shore operations
title_short A measure of ‘environmental happiness’: Infrastructuring environmental risk in oil and gas off shore operations
title_full A measure of ‘environmental happiness’: Infrastructuring environmental risk in oil and gas off shore operations
title_fullStr A measure of ‘environmental happiness’: Infrastructuring environmental risk in oil and gas off shore operations
title_full_unstemmed A measure of ‘environmental happiness’: Infrastructuring environmental risk in oil and gas off shore operations
title_sort measure of ‘environmental happiness’: infrastructuring environmental risk in oil and gas off shore operations
publisher European Association for the Study of Science and Technology and Finnish Society for Science and Technology Studie
publishDate 2016
url https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/article/view/55408
https://doi.org/10.23987/sts.55408
geographic Arctic
geographic_facet Arctic
genre Arctic
genre_facet Arctic
op_source Science & Technology Studies; Vol. 29 No. 1 (2016): Science & Technology Studies. Special Issue: Knowledge Infrastructures: Part I; 30-51
Science & Technology Studies; Vol 29 Nro 1 (2016): Science & Technology Studies. Special Issue: Knowledge Infrastructures: Part I; 30-51
2243-4690
op_relation https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/article/view/55408/pdf_3
https://sciencetechnologystudies.journal.fi/article/view/55408
doi:10.23987/sts.55408
op_rights Copyright (c) 2016 Elena Parmiggiani, Eric Monteiro
op_doi https://doi.org/10.23987/sts.55408
container_title Science & Technology Studies
container_volume 29
container_issue 1
container_start_page 30
op_container_end_page 51
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