%0 Journal Article
%T ¡®Civil skepticism¡¯ and the social construction of knowledge: A case in dendroclimatology
%A Meritxell Ram¨ªrez-i-Oll¨¦
%J Social Studies of Science
%@ 1460-3659
%D 2018
%R 10.1177/0306312718763119
%X Early Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholars recognized that the social construction of knowledge depends on skepticism¡¯s parasitic relationship to background expectations and trust. Subsequent generations have paid less empirical attention to skepticism in science and its relationship with trust. I seek to rehabilitate skepticism in STS ¨C particularly, Merton¡¯s view of skepticism as a scientific norm sustained by trust among status peers ¨C with a study of what I call ¡®civil skepticism¡¯. The empirical grounding is a case in contemporary dendroclimatology and the development of a method (¡®Blue Intensity¡¯) for generating knowledge about climate change from trees. I present a sequence of four instances of civil skepticism involved in making Blue Intensity more resistant to critique, and hence credible (in laboratory experiments, workshops, conferences, and peer-review of articles). These skeptical interactions depended upon maintaining communal notions of civility among an increasingly extended network of mutually trusted peers through a variety of means: by making Blue Intensity complementary to existing methods used to study a diverse natural world (tree-ring patterns) and by contributing to a shared professional goal (the study of global climate change). I conclude with a sociological theory about the role of civil skepticism in constituting knowledge-claims of greater generality and relevance
%K dendroclimatology
%K externalization
%K Merton
%K skepticism
%K trust
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0306312718763119