Written by Asta Zerue Habtemichael, STEEP trainee and PhD candidate, University of Rhode Island Graduate School of Oceanography
Scientific conferences are a critical forum to network, communicate research and new findings, and engage in debate toward the advancement of science.
Disciplines vary, but all conferences act as a forum for the exchange of ideas between discourse communities. The discourse communities in a scientific context might reflect the principal research idea and approaches to it. As such, antagonistic engagements between groups can lead to the evolution of a discourse community. The mere nature of science leads to the creation, evolution, and dominance of discourse communities in every discipline.
In environmental chemistry, national and international conferences convene thousands of individuals who work and study in subfields of the discipline. With a hyperfocus on environmental pollution, FLUOROS Global is a leading international conference for fluorinated compounds and resulting implications on environmental and public health.
In this article, we examine FLUOROS Global as a discourse forum, and how divergent perspectives seem to be merging toward an evolution, from a chemical science platform to a distinctly transdisciplinary approach to research.
Conferences as Scientific Forums
Scientific conferences are only second to scientific journals as the most significant and critical platforms for presenting research and progress in a field of study. Scientific conferences manifest in different colors and flavors, but share a common goal: each gathers discourse communities within a discipline, directly involved in the practice of science, as well as communities of engaged stakeholders. Thus, conferences provide the means for groups to debate and discuss scientific topics.
In the context of a conference, various interactions among intellectuals of all levels are necessary for the progress of science. Contesting ideas are presented and disputed, serving as principal pillars for the respective discourse communities.
Sometimes, the intersectionality of science creates a complex integration of discourse communities. However, in specialized subfields, discourse communities are easily identifiable. FLUOROS Global, an international symposium focused on anthropogenic fluorinated organic compounds and impact on environmental and public health, makes it an intriguing and simultaneously crucial forum. A uniquely narrow focus on fluorinated chemicals allows us to restrict our understanding of discourse communities and identify respective principles. Additionally, limited scope promotes easily identified patterns of change and evolution of principles involved in the production, regulation, and impact of fluorinated compounds.
Emergence of FLUOROS Global
Prior to the inception of FLUOROS Global, the complex nature and imminent destructive effects of fluorinated compounds prompted scientists to be wary of traditional scientific forums, typically aimed at a wide scope of disciplines that might dilute the sensitivity of the issue. This was the very framework that resulted in the creation of a distinct and separate conference, FLUOROS Global, offering an exclusive platform to research in fluorinated compounds (FLUOROS, 2021).
High-volume production and industrial application of fluorinated compounds in the 1960s resulted in the detection of higher concentration of fluorinated chemicals in the environment, and later in human serum samples (Sunderland et al., 2019). Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) is the notable chemical class raising concern. PFAS have water- and oil-resistant properties, useful in household products, adhesives, inks, textiles, food packaging, and aqueous film forming firefighting foams (AFFF) (Sunderland et al., 2019). Legacy PFAS, compounds with carbon chains equal to or longer than eight, such as perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) or perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) are highly accumulative in biological systems, accumulating in elevated concentrations in wildlife and humans (De Silva et al., 2020; McDonough et al., 2021). In humans, PFAS have been associated with health risks, including immunosuppression, neurological impairment, high cholesterol, and cancer (Hu et al., 2018). Ubiquitous distribution and largely unknown impacts have prompted scientists to rally for PFAS reclassification, obligating management as a compound class rather than individual chemicals (Cousins et al., 2020; Kwiatkowski et al., 2020). Reclassification will allow scientists to be cost effective in their impact assessment research, targeting a group rather than individual compounds, and also enforcing holistic policy development and easier regulation.
FLUOROS Global has convened four times since its conception in 1985, and a closer look reveals a remarkable evolution of the discourse communities observed within them. These dynamic shifts are mainly influenced by the social and political changes dominant in the years that preceded the conferences. Moreover, the evolution of science and science communication has influenced engagement and presentations, and from whom, throughout the past three decades. With respect to fluorinated compounds, the perspective shift has resulted in the emergence of discourse communities not visible before. Technological advancement and access to information have also empowered communities, indigenous peoples, and minority groups to exercise rights and influence policy. Dramatic shifts in the last two decades have ushered in a community-centric scaffolding for FLUOROS Global.
Discourse Communities in FLUOROS Global, 1985
As a forum, FLUOROS Global was initially dominated by science. Industry representatives from major corporations composed researcher attendance, rather than CEOs and tech officers. Discourse communities during the first FLUOROS were likely relegated to two major factions:
- A group of scientists overwhelmingly concerned with the environmental risks of fluorinated compounds and demanded regulatory measures for the chemicals.
- And in stark contrast, a group who backed the industry in favor of production and utilization of the chemicals, irrespective of outcomes.
Principal ideas on the chemical structure and byproducts of degradation were highly contested during the conference. Heated debates around these issues and the detection of fluorinated chemicals in the environment birthed a third discourse community, which would come to grow in the years following that first meeting: politicians and activists.
When FLUOROS Global convened for the second time, a sweeping change in environmental perspectives in the early 1990s had already shifted the conversation: safety was not up for debate, but rather the challenge of analytical and instrumental detection, as well as an expansive gap in research and knowledge. Concerns of the public and political buy-in for environmental ideologies was reflected in FLUOROS, which refocused on the identification of polluters. This resonated with the zeitgeist: resolve pollution by making polluters pay. This staging led to the development of environmental forensic sciences and created mass spectrometry-dominance in identifying fluorinated compounds for the decade that followed.
Heightened public interest in environmental issues in the early 21st century incited involvement of political platforms and policy-making agencies. An explosive influx of stakeholders drove the next evolution of scientific conferences.
A Dynamic FLUOROS Global, 2021
In 2021, FLUOROS convened for the third time, and the evolution to engage stakeholders was remarkably visible in contrast to the previous two FLUOROS, and the landscape of scientific conferences in general.
Represented discourse communities were as complex as the issues of fluorinated compounds. Engagement of indigenous communities and local knowledge made this conference unique, and traditional knowledge practitioners were treated as par expertise in the field. In one instance, Alaskan natives, doing their own research to preserve the traditional food sources impacted by PFAS, weighed the pros and cons of their protein sources.
At every stage of the conference, local communities were provided platforms to present perspectives and share expertise, and FLUOROS Global 2021 transcended the barrier of exclusionary science. Communities had become aware of the changes in their environment and human health in relation to these PFAS sources; they stopped farming lands near polluted sites, long before regulated clean up was mandated. And thus, community engagement enlightened scientists to burgeoning relationships, allowing research to escape the confines of parachute environmental science.
Evolution of the Discourse Community
A paradigm shift in science practice and communication changed the forum in 2021. Over the last three decades, science around fluorinated compounds had grown exponentially, attracting attention from varied attributes of the scientific spectrum: detection, quantification, regulation, remediation. As a result, discourse communities in FLUOROS Global, 2021 were difficult to classify in distinct categories; overlaps existed simply because of the integrated nature of the issue. Some discourse communities merged over the impacts of long-chain PFAS, where others diverged on the safety of newly manufactured alternative compounds.
The distinct feature of 2021 was the presence of impacted communities, offered a platform level with that of scientific discourse communities. This was different. FLUOROS seemed to pioneer tremendous impact, embracing community within the forum framework, and thus, a distinctly transdisciplinary approach to research.
References
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De Silva, A. O., Armitage, J. M., Bruton, T. A., Dassuncao, C., Heiger-Bernays, W., Hu, X. C., Kärrman, A., Kelly, B., Ng, C., Robuck, A., Sun, M., Webster, T. F., & Sunderland, E. M. (2020). PFAS Exposure Pathways for Humans and Wildlife: A Synthesis of Current Knowledge and Key Gaps in Understanding. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 40(3), 631–657. https://doi.org/10.1002/etc.4935
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