How scientific visions matter: insights from three long-term socio-ecological research (LTSER) platforms under construction in Europe

Long-Term Socio-Ecological Research (LTSER) has been introduced to change the current approach to ecology and turn it into a big science. LTSER Platforms are currently being created across Europe. They are expected to enhance ecology's capacity to produce useful knowledge for facing global environmental challenges. They therefore uphold a grand scientific vision bearing three main characteristics: interdisciplinarity, long-term field sites, and data sharing. Drawing on Science and Technology Studies (STS), we examined the enactment of these great expectations and scientific visions in practice. We carried out an empirical survey in three European LTSER Platforms, all at the early stage of construction: Lepsamanjoki in Finland, zone atelier Alpes in France and the Veluwe in the Netherlands. The way in which the three characteristics of the LTSER vision were put into practice was the focus of our investigation. As could be expected, they were not translated directly into reality. At first sight, they even had rather minor tangible effects. But the processes turned out to be as important as the products: the platforms provided the partners with an opportunity to learn to cooperate across disciplinary and institutional divides. When they occurred, these learning processes were situated. They were also ongoing and incomplete. This explains why the same grand visions were enacted in various ways and to different extents depending on the local contexts. The value of LTSER therefore lies not only in its ability to offer new research fields, instruments and data, but also in its potential to help researchers learn to collaborate with colleagues from other disciplines and institutions as well as with non-academic partners. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.