Democratizing Expertise and Environmental Governance: Different Approaches to the Politics of Science and their Relevance for Policy Analysis

Abstract

In the context of an increased attention to issues of participation, legitimacy, transparency and accountability in the field of environmental politics and policy, collaborative governance arrangements have been promoted to rearticulate the interactions between experts, policy-makers and citizens. This article discusses the relationship between the democratization of environmental governance and the democratization of expertise by focusing on two influential frameworks developed in the field of Science and Technology Studies: the framework of post-normal science, as elaborated by Funtowicz and Ravetz, and the notion of co-production developed by Jasanoff. By discussing in details the original formulations of these concepts, and by reviewing works adopting the two frameworks in the fields of climate science and policy, we discuss their potential contribution to the analysis of the politics of science in the context of environmental policy-making. We suggest that dynamics and outputs of the knowledge-making processes play a different role in the two frameworks, which reflects different sensibilities with respect to policy analysis—and in turn allows for a wide and diverse set of analytical opportunities.