Representations of Nature Mediating Between Ecology and Science Policy: The Case of the International Biological Programme

Abstract

This paper considers some aspects of the early history of the American contribution to the International Biological Programme (IBP), ecology's only venture into `Big Science'. It is argued that American ecologists were successful in obtaining generous funding for the IBP from the US Congress, thanks to a shared understanding of the way in which controlling nature was to be accomplished, expressed in the metaphor of the `cybernetic machine'. To support this argument, a literary analysis is performed on Congressional documents, on scientific and popular books and papers by ecologists, and on writings of the environmental movement. The paper explores how a dominant representation of nature, or mentalité, is brought about, and its political effects.