Green Groups and Grey Areas: Scientific Boundary-Work, Nongovernmental Organisations, and Environmental Knowledge

Eden, Sally; Donaldson, Andrew; Walker, Gordon

doi:10.1068/a37287

Cited by 104 publications

(97 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…A body of work has looked at the engagement of a range of different stakeholders in the decision making process concerned with the development and the implementation of environmental plans and practices (Callon, 1999;Nowotny et al, 2001;Eden et al, 2006;Collins and Weinel, 2011). In the area of land and water management Juntti and Potter (2002), Medd and Marvin (2008), Nutley et al (2003) and Proctor et al (in press) have focussed on practices of implementation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of policy implementation: The construction and uses of expertise and evidence in managing freshwater environments

Bracken

Oughton

2013

Environmental Science & Policy

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Publisher's copyright statement: NOTICE: this is the author's version of a work that was accepted for publication in Environmental Science and Policy. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be re ected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A de nitive version was subsequently published in Environmental Science and Policy, 30, June 2013, 10.1016/j.envsci.2012 Additional information: Use policyThe full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-pro t purposes provided that:• a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. AbstractThis paper explores how environmental policy is implemented and enacted through the management of technical and institutional knowledge at the local level. We use the conservation of the freshwater pearl mussel in the River Esk, North Yorkshire, UK, as an empirical case study to examine the interaction that takes place between professionals from different institutional and disciplinary backgrounds as they come together to work on a common problem. We focus on two aspects: the way in which an institutional context was created; and the interaction between the professionals involved. Our analysis demonstrates that the strategic intermediary role of professionals is vital to policy implementation. The intermediary uses their strategic vision and undertakes political manoeuvring following the presentation and interaction of different knowledges and evidence to ensure a certain course of action. This is different from a knowledge broker. The role of the professional is to draw on expertise, both formal and tacit, to interpret and judge data in relation to decision making. Those individuals participating in decision making of this nature have multiple histories, roles and motivations which enables innovation in the creation of meaning within environmental management. The quality of the evidence can be assumed adequate once subject to diverse professional scrutiny. These findings are important since innovative behaviour that creates new structures and practices is becoming central to delivering good management of land, water and biodiversity.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Making sense of policy implementation: The construction and uses of expertise and evidence in managing freshwater environments

Bracken

Oughton

2013

Environmental Science & Policy

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“…Demands for the application of science in the policy process reflect the assumption that its discipline will hold the research behind regulatory decisions to the same scientific standard (Jasanoff, 1987). Moreover, Climate Justice Taranaki's eliciting of the commentary by the veterinary scientist at Massey University concerning the report on contaminants in milk can be seen as illustrating the active role of this NGO in the production of scientific knowledge (Eden et al, 2006.) Not just being critical on the side-lines, they helped to shed light -knowledge -on the assumptions and methodological difficulties involved in trying to ascertain the safety of milk from cows grazing on landfarms.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, De Rijke (2013: 17) notes how some environmental groups have an "ambiguous relationship with science", in particular when there is a clash between esoteric knowledge and local experience. On the other hand, some NGOs may procure, or even serve as coproducers of scientific knowledge for explicit public consumption (Eden et al, 2006). It is because of the potential complexity and confusion arising from the struggle for credibility regarding a given issue that an established cultural cartography may derive its appeal.…”

Section: Cultural Cartographymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, the cultural map of knowledge and the boundaries that sustain it should not be reified (Eden et al, 2006), they are contingent, part of an ongoing negotiated order. Moreover, whilst acknowledging the critical responses to Gieryn's take on science (see also : Berbrier, 2002;Brown, 2015;Kinchy and Kleinman, 2003), it is important to point out that we are not concerned with the character of science as such but rather the boundary work inherent in the discursive ways in which science is invoked in public debate over the safety of landfarming and thereby how the struggle for epistemic authority is performative as regards its regulation.…”

Section: Cultural Cartographymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Landfarming: A contested space for the management of waste from oil and gas extraction

Bloomfield

Doolin

2017

Environ Plan A

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The extraction of unconventional hydrocarbons, particularly through hydraulic fracturing ('fracking'), has generated both support and opposition in many countries around the globe. Along with arguments about economic benefits, decarbonisation, transition fuels and groundwater contamination etc., the rapid expansion of this industry presents a pressing problem as regards the disposal of the resultant waste -including drilling and cutting material, oil and gas residues, various chemicals used in the process, salts and produced water. One putative solution -'landfarming' -is a disposal process that involves spreading oil and gas waste on to land and mixing it with topsoil to allow bioremediation of the hydrocarbons. This paper examines the case of landfarming in New Zealand where the practice has proved controversial due to its association with fracking, fears about the contamination of agricultural land and potential danger to milk supplies. Drawing upon Gieryn's notion of cultural cartography and boundary work as well as the literature on the politics of scale it analyses the struggles for epistemic authority regarding the safety of landfarming. The paper concludes that scalar practices were central to the production of knowledge (and ignorance) in these credibility struggles, and that the prevailing cultural cartography of knowledge remained the arbiter and basis for policy. The case has wider implications in terms of the management of waste from unconventional hydrocarbons as well as other environmental issues in which the politics of scale figure in contested knowledge claims.

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“…For example, Campbell (2007) shows how scientists selectively employ ecological data to support predetermined conservation goals at particular socio-political scales, arguing that "promoting conservation action at a particular scale is not simply a matter of biological or ecological necessity, but serves the political interests of particular groups" (Campbell 2007). Further, Campbell (2007), Eden, Donaldson, and Walker (2006), Yearley (1996) and others have considered the relationship of science, scientists, and environmental NGOs, both how NGOs use science strategically and with what consequences; the line between NGOs and science is often blurred in conservation contexts (Campbell 2007). Thus, although both common pool resource theory and political ecology have interests in scale and scalar politics, we argue that insights from science studies can help us explore the ways in which science itself (i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Geo-political genetics: Claiming the commons through species mapping

Campbell

Godfrey

2010

Geoforum

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Abstract:Genetic techniques are increasingly employed in the field of conservation biology, and sea turtle conservation is no exception. Our understanding of sea turtle biology, and particularly of sea turtle migrations and population structures, has increased through genetic analyses that 'match' turtles found in various and often widely distributed habitats (e.g. nesting beaches, foraging grounds, migratory corridors). This relatively recent technological development has implications for how sea turtles are conceived, both as resources and as objects of conservation. Traditionally, turtle populations have been attached to particular nesting beaches, and most conservation efforts have focused on these discrete geographic locations (sometimes including off-shore waters), and have been undertaken by the state. The more complete understanding of relationships among turtles found in geographically disparate areas, achieved via genetic analysis, can take conservation beyond the beaches and territorial waters of individual states. Nesting populations can now be linked to foraging populations sometimes hundreds of kilometers distant. In this paper, we explore the implications of genetic analysis for sea turtle conservation, the scale at which it is undertaken, and the variety of actors with competing interests in it. We focus on the case of hawksbill sea turtles in the Caribbean Sea. Conflicts over hawksbill conservation have spurred genetic analysis and genetic analysis has been applied in attempts to resolve those conflicts. We are particularly interested in the way genetic information encourages the scaling up of sea turtle conservation, and how it simultaneously strengthens and weakens claims of individual nation states, obscures claims of local level actors, and strengthens claims of external actors. We draw on political ecology, science studies, and common pool resource theory to explore these transitions and their consequences.

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Green Groups and Grey Areas: Scientific Boundary-Work, Nongovernmental Organisations, and Environmental Knowledge

Cited by 104 publications

References 24 publications

Making sense of policy implementation: The construction and uses of expertise and evidence in managing freshwater environments

Making sense of policy implementation: The construction and uses of expertise and evidence in managing freshwater environments

Landfarming: A contested space for the management of waste from oil and gas extraction

Geo-political genetics: Claiming the commons through species mapping

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