Urban Scientist: Who Brings Nature into Our Home?

Abstract

This article analyzes the relationships between science and the city, where science acts as an operator of nature. Focusing on public scientific communication, the study explores the role of the scientist in these relationships. A thesis is proposed that in the communication about the natural and urban (cultural), the scientist holds an ambivalent position. On the one hand, the scientist acts as a “representative” of nature—speaking on behalf of facts and having access to objective and naturalized knowledge. Being an urban resident, the scientist participates in the representation of the natural world and influences what nature is for the city. On the other hand, the scientist is involved in creating the innovative, technical nature of the city itself, implying the use of technology, devices, interfaces, laboratories, and recording systems. The city, as a place of innovation, solidifies the urban identity of the scientist, creating a gap between his aspiration for nature, which is mandatory in the public perceptions of science, and his technocratic embeddedness. Analyzing this gap, the author turns to the historical component of scientific and urban life, using the ideas of the sociologist Bruno Latour and several other authors. The study concludes with a thesis on the importance of reflexive change in the regimes of the natural–urban continuum, which can benefit the relationships between nature, the city, technology, science, and humans.