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Money and cultural economies of science are imbuedwith multiple meanings for actors involved in internationalscientific research and research training collaborations inUganda. This article uses economic anthropology to explore someof the tensions and misunderstandings that arise from Ugandan-Scandinavian partnerships in science. Using ethnographicexamples drawn from the experiences of Ugandan scientistsand their Scandinavian counterparts, the article describeshow the positions and actions of Ugandan scientists producedifferent, and at times contradictory meanings, for themselves,their kin, local colleagues, and Scandinavian counterparts.Compassion for a grieving sibling, a gift to a charity fundraiser,the extraction of personal savings from an international researchproject, and the strategic construction of a countryside homeare just a few examples of actions and relations that shapeactors’ understandings of Ugandan-Scandinavian scientificcollaborations. The article finds that pre-existing tensions inscientific collaborations resulting from dependency upon foreigndonors for research and research training funding are furtherexacerbated by foreign actors’ partial understandings of themeanings and moralities of scientific work in Uganda. The articleconcludes that greater recognition of the patterns of culturaleconomy that make money and labor in science meaningful arenecessary for mitigating mistrust and misunderstanding acrossSouth-North scientific collaborations.

Faced with limited resources, scientists from around the world enter into collaborations to join their resources to conduct research. Like everywhere else, international co-publishing in southern African countries is increasingly on the rise. The aim of this study was to document and analyse the level of scientific productivity, collaboration patterns, scientists' experiences and attitudes towards South-South and South-North collaboration. We performed 105 interviews with scientists based at five southern African Universities, namely; University of Malawi-Chancellor College, National University of Science and Technology, the University of Botswana, the University of Zambia, and the University of Zimbabwe. We also traced 192 scientists from the various departments at these universities that had jointly published 623 scientific papers in the field of basic sciences in the period 1995-2014 in Web of Science journals. Our results show that in the majority of the cases funding from the North contributed substantially to increased scientific productivity, and international co-authorship. The results also show that collaboration with southern scientists is equally valued as that with northern scientists, but for different reasons. We conclude that supporting international and national collaboration which includes increased scientific mobility, strong scientific groups and networks, are key factors for capacity building of research in southern African Universities.

Hot Science, High Water explores the work of different generations of Vietnamesescientists as they engage with local and international efforts to conserve nature, address climate change, and carry out scientific research. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork in universities, government offices, and foreign embassies, as well as the muddy intertidal zones of coastal Vietnam, the study reveals scientists engaged in a politics of nature that is local and global, contemporary and historical, and natural and social. More generally, this book is an ethnography of science in a developing country grappling with the local implications of global networks of knowledgeproduction, and shifting trends in international development policy.

The present work addresses the internationalization of higher educat-ion and its links with the practice of science in Vietnamese universities and research institutions. Using qualitative data from ethnographic case studies of Vietnamese scientists shortly after their return from PhD studies abroad, the paper reveals the fragile links between international science training and the production of scientific knowledge in Vietnam. Using five cases, I show that upon returning to their home institutions in Vietnam, scientists become agents of change in the politics of science and knowledge production. However, as a result of the interaction between Vietnamese and foreign influences, their agency and their scientific habitus (re)encounter social, cultural, economic and political flows in the local contexts that challenge their ambitions to implement effectively ideas and practices learned abroad.

The case study of five scientists presented here argues for a more nuanced explanation of the power of internationalization to create (positive) change in the local contexts of developing countries. It reveals how scientific production be- comes inseparable from the broader webs of social, political, economic and cultural relationships that characterize scientists’ particular local working environment.

Eren Zink explores the conditions of doing science in Vietnam. The scientists included in this study were engaged in local and international efforts to conserve nature, establish the fact of climate change, and carry out scientific research in Vietnam. In most instances they had received some of their higher education outside of Vietnam, and later returned to positions within Vietnamese government ministries, universities, research institutes or (to a lesser extent) nongovernmental organizations.

Paying close attention to cultural and historical influences, the thesis reveals a politics of science whereby actors deftly navigate intricate webs of social and political networks. Partnerships amongst local and foreign actors become possible as a result of the ‘slippery spaces’ where misunderstandings are carefully cultivated and maintained. And, in combination with increasing concentrations of greenhouse gases and international development aid, these actor-networks support the arrival of climate change in Vietnam.

Nevertheless, Vietnamese scientists are much more than intermediaries between local and foreign interests. Where the Red River meets the sea, scientists compete with national plans for aquaculture expansion in an effort to conserve an idea of nature that has roots in the rural villages of their remembered past. Meanwhile, in their own research institutions there are struggles over both the purpose of doing science, and the authority to practice it. With different degrees of success, the Vietnamese scientists studied here use the resources at hand to realize personal and professional ambitions, as well as to contribute to the (re)production of Vietnamese society.

The study is based upon eleven months of anthropological fieldwork that took place in Vietnam during 2007 – 2009. Study sites included Vietnamese research institutions, universities, ministries, embassies, and non-governmental organizations, as well as shrimp ponds and national parks in the coastal zone.