Hawaiʻi as a Laboratory Paradise: Divergent Sociotechnical Island Imaginaries

ABSTRACT

Scientific discoveries or testing technical systems are often tied to places deemed central for such endeavours. Related technoscientific visions are not merely mapped onto a place like a blueprint, but co-constituted with pre-existing spatial imaginations. This is particularly so in the case of islands. Taking up Hawai‘i’s significance both for natural science and contemporary agricultural biotechnology, and expanding upon the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries (Jasanoff and Kim, 2015), spatial imaginations of islands – as remote, contained spaces – channel, and are channeled by technoscientific, colonial visions and theories. In this context, laboratory and paradise tropes either accommodate or ‘keep out’ science and technology, and find expression in two sociotechnical island imaginaries. In an ecological island imaginary, western-scientific conceptions frame Hawai‘i as a laboratory of nature, and hosting paradise for natural sciences. Anti-GMO activists likewise articulate an ecological island imaginary, yet one of Hawai‘i as laboratory on nature, and nonabsorbable paradise in such slogans as ‘Stop Poisoning Paradise.’ In an agribusiness island imaginary, policy and industry visions portray the Islands as conducive agricultural laboratory where Edenic settings point to a hosting paradise to accommodate advancements of science, technology and business. Laboratory and paradise tropes indicate shared epistemic commitments across diverse sociotechnical island imaginaries, as well as divergences, such as in efforts to decolonize science. An analysis of overlapping and contrary sociotechnical island imaginaries that attends to such key visions allows for delineating heterogeneous dynamics beyond conventional categories like biodiversity, science, or culture.

KEYWORDS:

• Hawaiʻi
• sociotechnical imaginaries
• island imaginaries
• paradise
• agricultural biotechnology

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to those who offered valuable time to share their perspectives on agricultural biotechnology on Kaua‘i. I also thank Rebecca Lemov for acting as discussant for the panel ‘Island Imaginaries: From Repositories to Experimental Labs’ at the annual 4s meeting in Boston, 2017, as well as Maximilian Mayer, Sarah Blacker and two anonymous reviewers, who all provided valuable comments. Special thanks go to Nina Klimburg-Witjes for her tireless efforts to help move foward the special issue this article is part of.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 I refer to genetically engineered crops due to the lacking specificity of the term ‘modification’ that concerned some interlocutors. I add that genetic engineering (GE) comes closer to humans’ deliberate attempt to change the genetic makeup of an organism. Still, genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, was a common vernacular, and I refer to it in respective contexts.

2 ‘Āina is etymologically rooted in ‘ai, ‘to eat,’ while ‘āina is also a genealogical connection to ancestors (Oliveira 2014: 139f; 43). Following many Indigenous scholars, I refrain from italicizing Hawaiian words, thus countering this textual form of Othering.

3 This article is part of the special issue ‘Island Imaginaries' (Gugganig and Klimburg-Witjes, forthcoming).

4 See Helmreich (2009, p. 121) for a different argument, underlining the biological scarcity of Hawaiʻi as remote volcanic island.

5 Imua means move forward; IMUA TMT may be translated as Move forward with TMT.

6 In Michael Guggenheim’s words (2012), the distinction between laboratory of, and laboratory on nature might be one between a locatory, a place-specific laboratory – as in Hawai‘i being a specific place for specific scientific discoveries – and unilatory, where the object experimented on cannot be contained – as in toxic leakages.

7 See Webb (forthcoming) in this special issue for a similar discussion with regards to planets as conservable ‘islands'.

8 Similarly, in over a decade of research, I have rarely met anyone (even and especially scholars) that did not associate Hawaiʻi with paradisiacal conditions. Frequent remarks like ‘smart choice’ of a research setting make evident how deeply ingrained Hollywood island visions in academic circles still are. An attempt to counter these romantic perceptions was my research exhibition ‘Hawaiʻi beyond the Postcard.’ Figure 2 is a postcard I created as part of this exhibition. See http://hawaiibeyond.wordpress.com/ and Gugganig (2020).

9 Besides space, Jasanoff lists time, difference, collective formation and individual identity as other factors for sociotechnical imaginaries. This paper primarily deals with space.

10 In 2012–2013, the industry on Kauaʻi consisted of Pioneer DuPont, Syngenta, Dow Agroscience, and BASF. The two latter since closed their operations, Pioneer DuPont was replaced by Corteva, and Syngenta by Hartung Brothers.

11 I thank Phoebe Sengers for pointing me to this dimension.

12 See Laurent et al. (forthcoming) in this special issue for a similar discussion with regards to the role of islands for business creation.

13 http://www.stoppoisoningparadise.org/#!facts/c1l3m,

https://www.stoppoisoningparadise.org/pesticide-action-network-kauai-report (both accessed 2 June 2018).

14 In author’s possession.

15 Information Systems for Biotechnology (ISB) from Virginia Tech, which the USDA referred to for data on GE open-air field test sites and locations of U.S. states. http://www.isb.vt.edu/locations-by-years.aspx (accessed May 28 2016). Since May 2018, this website is no longer accessible.

16 In terms of locations (not sites), Hawaiʻi indeed leads in this 27-year period with 3,403 locations (Illinois: 3,193, Iowa: 2,912, California: 2,104). It should be noted that none of the comparisons, including the one with Iowa or Idaho, take into account the state’s size, population, or environmental factors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was in part supported by a Doctoral Four-year Fellowship (2010-2014) at the University of British Columbia's Department of Anthropology, and the Liu Institute's Bottom Billion Fieldwork Fund (2012).

Notes on contributors

Mascha Gugganig

Mascha Gugganig received her PhD in cultural anthropology at the University of British Columbia. Her work includes research on contested novel technologies in agriculture and food production, as well as multimodal arts-based, and collaborative research methods. She is about to start a position as Alex Trebek Postdoctoral Fellow in AI and Environment at the University of Ottawa.