A Soil Story: The Coming of Age of a Scientific Concept Through the Eyes of D. J. Hissink

Abstract

In this thesis, I have tried to show how a scientist’s conceptualization of their own subject can change considerably through the institutions they work at, through the scale with which they look at it, through their network with other scientists and the practice. It led to the transformation of a view of the soil as nutrient infrastructure to a soil as an entity with a story that has a beginning, middle and an end. The epistemic hierarchy between the lab and the field has furthermore greatly influenced Hissink’s approach in researching the soil as well as his decision on which kinds of soil knowledge to allow into his realm. This was the case for the laboratories that he worked at as well as the lab-field hybrid spaces where he performed experimentation. However, even though Hissink has tried to move away from localness of the soil to universal ideas, theories, and methods, those same unique, inherently local features of the Dutch landscape have kept influencing his Soil Story.