| • discuss the dilemmas of analyzing structure and agency in science-policy, or how specific “actors” may replicate, reform, or co-construct the boundaries or networks of environmental science; |
| • introduce the concept of “boundary organization” as a means of analyzing organizations that shape and enforce linkages between science and policy. The chapter provides examples of boundary organizations from state and non-state sectors, and considers their influence on current topics of environmental debate such as carbon-offset forestry; |
| • analyze further how social movements, as a potent source of social resistance, may challenge or reinforce dominant forms of environmental explanation. This section also includes a critique of some current approaches to political ecology, including resource mobilization and advocacy coalitions, and the impact of social movements on environmental discourses. |
The aim of this chapter is to contribute to a “critical” political ecology by showing how environmental politics and actors may shape, and be shaped by, environmental science. Later chapters discuss how this knowledge may be used to increase the transparency and public participation in the formulation of environmental science.
The discussion in Chapter 5 showed that environmental science does not exist in isolation from social debates. Political activism and social concerns influence how environmental changes are framed, and these then affect the objectives and outcomes of environmental science. When scientific statements are seen to be politically neutral and authoritative, they may reinforce the original concerns and framings, and imply these are universally applicable to all people. Such co-construction of science and politics
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Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.com
Publication information:
Book title: Critical Political Ecology: The Politics of Environmental Science.
Contributors: Tim Forsyth - Author.
Publisher: Routledge.
Place of publication: London.
Publication year: 2002.
Page number: 134.
This material is protected by copyright and, with the exception of fair use, may not be further copied, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means.
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