Managing the Environmental Legitimation Crisis

Abstract

The authors discuss and extend the crisis theory of Habermas and Offe by adding and arguing for the semiautonomy of a fourth system—the ecological system. Based on Habermas's crisis systems theory and J. O'Connor's fiscal crisis-of-the-state thesis, they develop a crisis systems model (CSM) applicable to late capitalist societies. Within the framework of the CSM, they outline the three crises identified in earlier research— accumulation crisis of overproduction, accumulation crisis of underproduction, and social welfare legitimation—and argue for the relevance of a fourth crisis—the environmental legitimation crisis. They assess the empirical import of the CSM and the cogency of the environmental legitimation crisis by examining the evolving role of citizen participation in natural resource management in the United States. The authors conclude that the democratization of environmental decision making is, in part, an adaptive response by natural resources agencies to avoid an environmental legitimation crisis.

Feeding increases the number of offspring but decreases parental investment of Red Sea coral Stylophora pistillata

“…However, in the field, increased pelagic larval duration comes with increased predation risk, complicating this environmentally driven trade-off. Alternatively, increased POI may be used for rapid settlement, maintaining a larger size at metamorphosis (Marshall & Keough, 2007), linked to faster growth rates in colonial marine invertebrates (Marshall, Cook, & Emlet, 2006 and stochastic, shorter PLD forced by lowered POI and increased offspring number are more likely to increase recruitment in good environments. This may drive a shift in Red Sea S. pistillata from r-select (Loya, 1976) to more K-select life history traits in low quality environments, which may be of potential consequence under climate change in this and other coral species.…”

Postnormal Science, Precautionary Principle, and Worst Cases: The Challenge of Twenty‐First Century Catastrophes*

“…The first problem‐solving strategy identified by Funtowics and Ravetz (1992) is “applied science” or in Kuhn's (1962) parlance, “puzzle‐solving.” Applied science adheres to the canons of science advocated since the seventeenth century and is based on a reductionistic, linear, mechanistic model of the empirical world. Applied science produced “objective” knowledge through scientific expertise, marginalized the public as nonexperts, and discounted lay knowledge as value‐laden (Marshall and Goldstein 2006). In policy debates, scientific experts opted for a role of value neutrality.…”

“…Professional consultancy exposed science for being a value‐laden process, operating in an arena with multiple stakeholders, each armed with professionals making truth claims backed by “science.” Skeptics of traditional science argue that the ideal of the objective scientist is a myth, research may be value‐laden, most research is politicized, and funded research projects are increasingly wedded to commercial interests (Marshall and Goldstein 2006). Furthermore, as the relationship between environmental problems and technological failure became increasingly apparent, the public's faith in science and trust of scientists has waned (Edelstein 1988; Flynn et al 1992; Greenberg and Williams 1999; Marshall and Goldstein 2006; Piller 1991). Also, the public's trust in organizations responsible for risk management and regulation has steadily eroded over the past several decades (Dunlap and Mertig 1992; Lipset and Schneider 1983).…”

“…) century and is based on a reductionistic, linear, mechanistic model of the empirical world. Applied science produced "objective" knowledge through scientific expertise, marginalized the public as nonexperts, and discounted lay knowledge as value-laden (Marshall and Goldstein 2006). In policy debates, scientific experts opted for a role of value neutrality.…”

“…Most accepted science as the dominant epistemology and believed that the method of science produced empirical evidence devoid of biases related to personality, politics, and commercialism. Legitimate knowledge was built largely on trust in expert systems located in organizations (Marshall and Goldstein 2006).…”