Strategic Science Translation and Environmental Controversies

Abstract

In contested areas of environmental research and policy, all stakeholders are likely to claim that their position is scientifically grounded but disagree about the relevant scientific conclusions or the weight of the evidence. In this article, I draw on a year of participant observation and over 110 in-depth interviews, with the case study of controversial chemicals used as flame retardants in consumer products. I develop the concept of strategic science translation (SST), the process of interpreting and communicating scientific evidence to an intended audience in order to advance certain goals and interests. Engaging in selective, interpretive, or inaccurate SST allows competing stakeholders to bolster their arguments, strengthen their authority, and inspire change regarding a policy-relevant issue. Because stakeholders deploy imbalanced resources when they participate in contested environmental fields, their actions in those fields and the resulting policy outcomes often reduce not to the settling of scientific truths but to power differentials.

Defining and defending risk: conceptual risk formulas in environmental controversies

“…This work is part of a larger mixed method project on the social implications of flame retardant chemicals and risk and hazard assessment of chemicals (Brown and Cordner 2011;Cordner and Brown 2015;Cordner 2015). I conducted indepth interviews and participant and non-participant observation at multiple sites, supplemented by a detailed literature review, archival research, and a content analysis of published documents and testimony.…”

Non-stick science: Sixty years of research and (in)action on fluorinated compounds

“…Much as Latour and Woolgar (1986) point to the need for scientists to engage in recruitment in order to persuade others to believe in and implement their innovations, Krimsky (2000) traces how scientists actively translate their research to engage various publics. All invested actors engage in 'strategic science translation' (Cordner, 2015) to interpret and communicate scientific evidence to an intended audience for the purposes of advancing certain goals and interests. These processes demonstrate how the separation between scientists and non-scientists and between the scientific and the social are overlapping, blurred and challenged.…”

The Sociology of Ignorance and Post‐Truth Politics

“…However, there is a broader set of distortions that occurs as the knowledge circulates in the media and other social fields. Cordner (:992) terms these distortions of science in the public sphere “strategic science translation,” or “the process of interpreting and communicating scientific evidence to an intended audience for the purposes of advancing certain goals and interests.” She describes three mechanisms for the generation of distorted science: selected publicizing of evidence, describing findings to highlight uncertainty, and deliberate misrepresentation of research.…”