Roles of Scientists as Policy Advisers on Complex Issues: a Literature Review

Spruijt, Pita; Lebret, Erik; Petersen, Arthur C.; Knol, Anne; Vasileiadou, Eleftheria

doi:10.1289/isee.2014.p3-658

Cited by 12 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 61 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The phases used in our systematic literature review (Figure 1) were inspired by the work of Spruijt et al (2014). We used an interdisciplinary approach, based on the research backgrounds of the authors (Law, Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Physics, Engineering, History, and International Relations).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the contours of climate governance: An interdisciplinary systematic literature review from a southern perspective

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Dealing with climate change is one of this century's most difficult challenges demanding new strategies to steer societies towards common transformational goals. A growing literature involving “climate governance” is evolving and should advance the discussion on transformations and the involvement of different actors in climate action. However, it is unclear that the Global South's particularities are being integrated. This study has a three‐fold goal: (a) identify the different approaches to climate governance found in the mainstream literature, (b) explore the degree of integration of the Global South in those approaches, and (c) contribute to the ongoing discussion on this issue from a southern perspective. A systematic literature review on “climate governance” was conducted, distinguishing different approaches and their significance for the Global South. Results clustered in six groups use the characterizations: multi‐level, global, adaptive, transnational, polycentric, and experimental/transformative. These terms account for different levels of decision‐making, emerging values, and the importance of non‐State and sub‐national actors. Approaches vary, in relation to change and participation, from an incremental improvement focus to a more transformative perspective and from the promotion of community influence to processes based on traditional institutions. In the Global South, multi‐level, multi‐actor climate governance occurs in a context of deep inequality and asymmetric power relations, rising environmental conflicts, and a lack of adequate mechanisms for community participation. Addressing climate change here will require, acknowledging the State alone cannot solve the issue, that different views must be considered and that contextualized perspectives from the Global South must be integrated.

show abstract

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exploring the contours of climate governance: An interdisciplinary systematic literature review from a southern perspective

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Authors have started to explore the possibilities of implementing more direct (Rosanvallon, 2008), deliberative (Warren, 2006), associative (Hirst, 2002) or regulatory (Majone, 1999) forms of democratic governance to better ‘control’ and ‘check’ the influence of experts in risk governance. However, such studies are often very theoretical and do not consider the way in which experts actually influence democratic decision-making (Spruijt et al , 2014). This paper takes a step back in this development.…”

Section: Expert-influence In Flood Governancementioning

confidence: 99%

Expert-influence in adapting flood governance: An institutional analysis of the spatial turns in the United States and the Netherlands

Bergsma

2017

Journal of Institutional Economics

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In response to climate change, many national governments are shifting their focus from ‘safety’ to ‘spatial-planning’ measures in flood governance. Rather than providing full protection against floods, spatial-planning measures aim to reduce the impacts of floods by encouraging damage mitigation in local-level spatial-planning and building choices. This turn to spatial-planning measures has important implications for how costs and responsibilities are divided in flood governance. This paper examines the role of experts in shaping the distributive aspects of this shift. Using a theoretical framework on institutional change, the role of experts is analyzed in two case studies. The first focuses on the United States, where a turn to spatial-planning measures was made in the 1960s. The second case study looks at this turn Dutch flood governance, which has always been characterized by a strong safety paradigm. The paper draws conclusions about the effects of expert-influence on distributive decision-making underlying institutional changes in both cases.

show abstract

“…Despite the overwhelming scientific consensus that anthropogenic climate change is a serious problem that requires urgent and sustained policy action at all levels of government there remains a significant science‐policy gap: governments are not enacting measures commensurate with the significance of the problem. Addressing climate change is made difficult by the inherent uncertainty of scientific research, the presence of competing producers of information seeking to define problems and influence decisions, and poor communication between scientists and policymakers (Bradshaw & Borchers, 2000; Holmes & Clark, 2008; Spruijt et al, 2014; van den Hove, 2007). In some cases where scientific information has had a limited influence on policy, it has been attributed to the failure of policymakers to draw on the best available evidence (Sharman & Holmes, 2010; Soomai, MacDonald, & Wells, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information exchange networks at the climate science‐policy interface: Evidence from the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, and Portugal

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Scientifically informed climate policymaking starts with the exchange of credible, salient, and legitimate scientific information between scientists and policymakers. It is therefore important to understand what explains the exchange of scientific information in national climate policymaking processes. This article applies exponential random graph models to network data from the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, and Portugal to investigate which types of organizations are favored sources of scientific information and whether actors obtain scientific information from those with similar beliefs as their own. Results show that scientific organizations are favored sources in all countries, while only in the Czech Republic do actors obtain scientific information from those with similar policy beliefs. These findings suggest that actors involved in climate policymaking mostly look to scientific organizations for information, but that in polarized contexts where there is a presence of influential denialists overcoming biased information exchange is a challenge.

show abstract

Roles of Scientists as Policy Advisers on Complex Issues: a Literature Review

Cited by 12 publications

References 61 publications

Exploring the contours of climate governance: An interdisciplinary systematic literature review from a southern perspective

Exploring the contours of climate governance: An interdisciplinary systematic literature review from a southern perspective

Expert-influence in adapting flood governance: An institutional analysis of the spatial turns in the United States and the Netherlands

Information exchange networks at the climate science‐policy interface: Evidence from the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, and Portugal

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About