Soil is a complex ecosystem with a multitude of components—plants being a crucial one. Scientists from different disciplines including those in the soil, agricultural, and biological sciences study plant-soil relations in diverse ways, and their practices involve category-making activities. These disciplines have sometimes neglected each other’s work; other times, they have paid attention and aimed for more comprehensive understandings. In either case, these relationships affected their practices significantly. By investigating plant nutrition and soil chemistry research in the early twentieth century, I examine the interactions between these disciplines and the ways they approach their specific problems, which are (in one way or other) connected to plant-soil relations. I will reflect on how these diverse conceptualizations have given shape to the contemporary understandings of plants and soil.

Özlem Yilmaz Silverman is Postdoctoral Researcher for the NSF-funded project “Epistemic and Ethical Functions of Categories in the Agricultural Sciences” with Catherine Kendig (PI) and Paul Thompson (co-PI). She is also faculty member in the Department of Philosophy at MSU.

Zoom Meeting
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