Norwegian climate policy has been marked by several shifts with regard to adopted targets and measures to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. Three knowledge-based discourses -respectively a tax discourse, a quota discourse and a technology discourse -have been influential throughout. By tracing the development of Norwegian climate policy from 1989 until 2008, it is shown, however, that while significant in early phases of policymaking, the discourses lose influence in the phase when policy solutions are designed and implemented. Those ideas and ambitions that characterise the ruling discourses in Norwegian climate policy are not necessarily materialised in actual policy.
This review examines the alleged crisis of trust in environmental science and its impact on public opinion, policy decisions in the context of democratic governance, and the interaction between science and society. In an interdisciplinary manner, the review focuses on the following themes: the trustworthiness of environmental science, empirical studies of levels of trust and trust formation; social media, environmental science, and disinformation; trust in environmental governance and democracy; and co-production of knowledge and the production of trust in knowledge. The review explores both the normative issue of trustworthiness and empirical studies on how to build trust. The review does not provide any simple answers to whether trust in science is generally in decline or whether we are returning to a less enlightened era in public life with decreased appreciation of knowledge and truth. The findings are more nuanced, showing signs of both distrust and trust in environmental science. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Environment and Resources, Volume 47 is October 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
In this article, the participation of academic experts on Norwegian public committees is investigated to explore how their interpretation of the expert role affects the wider deliberations on such settings. These committees are commonly perceived as venues for the integration of organized interest on public policymaking. This study demonstrate, however, how the participation of experts on committees may contribute to alienate the explorative style of negotiation that is elsewhere described as typical for Norwegian corporatist decision-making. Despite being independent members, experts outlined their role in accordance with the professional values of their discipline, and acted as representatives of their profession on committees. This contributed to experts' bounded deliberation on these committees and the introduction of professional standards for judgment in the face of differences. The study is based on qualitative interviews with members of the past four committees advising on Norwegian climate policies.
Higher education institutions are increasingly expected to demonstrate relevance of the education provided and establish tighter links with the labour market. The introduction of learning outcomes represents one such development. The article examines the extent to which various intermediary organizations are involved in decisions about learning outcomes and the consequences of this regarding the role of learning outcomes and their potential in linking higher education to the world of work. Intermediary organizations are operationalised as professional associations and trade unions. The empirical material includes data from interviews of 14 intermediary organizations with different ties to higher education. The findings show that organizations have distinctly different approaches to their involvement in learning outcome development as well as different views on the potentials of learning outcomes as a legitimate instrument to increase the relevance of higher education. Instead of creating new links between higher education and the world of work, the processes of introducing learning outcomes reinforces existing collaboration patterns.
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