the quest for green knowledge andrew jamison mixing science and politics in environmental governance
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The Quest for Green Knowledge
Andrew Jamison
Mixing Science and Politics in Environmental Governance
A Story of Hubris
”...impious disregard of the limits
governing human action in an orderly
universe. It is the sin to which the
great and gifted are most
susceptible, and in Greek tragedy it
is usually the hero's tragic flaw.”
(Encyclopedia Britannica)
“The climate crisis is not a political
issue, it is a moral and spiritual
challenge to all of humanity. It is also
our greatest opportunity to lift global
consciousness to a higher level.”
from Al Gore’s Nobel acceptance speech
For example:Al Gore
”offspring of parents that differ in genetically
determined traits” (Encyclopedia Britannica)
or, more colorfully:
”By the late twentieth century, our time, a mythic
time, we are all chimeras, theorized and
fabricated hybrids of machine and organism...”
(Donna Haraway)
...and Hybrids
“California is mobilizing technologically, financially and
politically to fight global warming change….What we are
doing is changing the dynamic, preparing the way, and
encouraging the future.”
Arnold Schwarzenegger at the UN
For example?
...versus (Habit)us
”...a set of dispositions which generates
practices and perceptions. The habitus is the
result of a long process of inculcation, beginning
in early childhood, which becomes a ’second
sense’ or a second nature.”
(Randal Johnson on Pierre Bourdieu)
“it seems very unrealistic and conservative to assume that we will not adapt to rising temperatures throughout the 21st century.“
from Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist’s Guide to Global Warming
For example: Bjørn Lomborg
The Making of Green Knowledge
Awakening: 1960s Public education, criticizing (big) science
Organization: 1970-1980s Social movements, appropriate technology
Normalization: 1990s Sustainable development, green business
Globalization: 2000s- Dealing with climate change – and the skeptics!
From the Cognitive Praxis of Environmental Movements
Cosmological dimension: social ecology, ”limits to growth”
Technological dimension: appropriateness, ”radical technology”
Organizational dimension: participatory research, ”citizen science”
Green Business Skepticism Green Knowledge(Hubris) (Habitus) (Hybrids)
key actors experts entrepreneurs change agents
forms of research and business as usual exemplaryaction development mobilization
organizational (multi)disciplinary transnational cooperative form teams actor-networks alliances
type of specialized, subjective, integrative,knowledge objective constructive situated
...to Contending Regimes of Environmental Governance
Changing Contexts of Knowledge Making Mode 1 Mode 1½ Mode 2
“Little Science” “Big Science” “Technoscience” Before WWII 1940s-1970s 1980s-
Type of Knowledge disciplinary multidisciplinary transdisciplinary
Organiza- individuals and R&D departments ad hoc projects andtional form research groups and institutes networks
Dominantvalues academic bureaucratic commercial
From Little Science to Big Science
change in size and scale
mission orientation, external control
university-government collaboration
bureaucratic norm, or value system
new role for the state: ”science policy”
the emergence of environmentalism
The Hybrid Imagination: Lewis Mumford (1895-1990)
”The whole industrial world – and instrumentalism is only its highest conscious expression - has taken values for granted...”
The Hybrid Imagination: Rachel Carson (1907-64)
”The road we have long been traveling is deceptively easy, a smooth superhighway on which we progress with great speed, but at its end lies disaster.”
From Big Science to Technoscience
change in range and scope
market orientation, global reach
university-industry collaboration
entrepreneurial norm or value system
the state as strategist: innovation policy
the emergence of green business
The Emergence of Green Business
environmental economics and policy
sustainable development
Environmental awareness, or consciousness
natural capitalism ecoefficiency
pollution prevention,cleaner technologies
pollution control,”end-of pipe”
industrial ecology
renewable energy
ecological modernization
”The fundamental assumption [is] that
economic growth and the resolution of
ecological problems can, in principle, be
reconciled…”
Maarten Hajer, The Politics of Environmental Discourse, 1995
The Discourse of Ecological Modernization
Green Business as Cognitive Praxis
From ”movement”…to ”institutions”
appropriate technology green products
organizational alliances competing firms
ecological society sustainable growth
public education popularization/marketing
integrating knowledge seeking market niches
movement intellectuals green salesmen
Science and Green Business Environmental problems seen primarily as providing new
opportunities for scientists and engineers
A multidisciplinary, big science model of research (IPCC) and a
linear model of innovation
A tendency toward hubris: the myth of science-based progress and
the technical fix
A continuing belief in the distinterested objectivity of science, and
on a rational, science-based politics
The Anti-Environmentalist Backlash
an outgrowth of neo-conservatism and neo-nationalism
supported financially by ”big oil” and agro-industry
skeptical about importance of environmental problems
an organized opposition to green business
technoscience’s nemesis: the entrepreneurial academic
Skeptical Environmentalism, a la Lomborg
mode 2, or socially robust knowledge:
the ”context speaks back” (in this case, the Danish habitus)
the political manipulation of facts and numbers
the academic goes to market – and the media
commercial epistemic criteria:”more environment for the money” (cost-benefit analysis)
Transdisciplinarity, or ”mode 2”
”Knowledge which emerges from a particular
context of application with its own distinct
theoretical structures, research methods and
modes of practice but which may not be
locatable on the prevailing disciplinary map.”
Michael Gibbons et al, The New Production of Knowledge (1994:168)
The Need for a ”Mode 3”, or Change-Oriented Research
Problem-driven, rather than solution-driven
Intervention in ongoing political process
Active, rather than explanatory ambition
Narrative form of presentation, ”telling stories”
Participatory, dialogue methods (e.g. focus groups)
Engagement, or involvement in what is studied
...and a Hybrid Imagination
At the discursive, or macro level: connecting environmentalism and global justice
At the institutional, or meso level creating contexts, or sites for collective learning
At the practitioner, or micro level combining different forms of knowledge and action
Vandana Shiva’s Hybrid Imagination
On the discursive level – ecofeminism, public accountability, ”earth democracy”
On the institutional level - organic agriculture, political ecology, global justice
On the personal level – rhetorical knowledge, advocacy research, public science
Or, in the words of Peter Garrett, Australia’s new Environment Minister
Out where the river brokeThe bloodwood and the desert oakHolden wrecks and boiling dieselsSteam in forty five degrees
The time has come, to say fair's fairTo pay the rent, to pay our share The time has come, a fact's a factIt belongs to them, let's give it back
How can we dance when our earth is turningHow do we sleep while our beds are burning
Four wheels scare the cockatoosFrom Kintore East to YuendemuThe western desert lives and breathesIn forty five degrees
We need to change our waysAnd how we spend our days,Stop taking so much from the earthAnd learn what life is really worth. We've taken more than we shouldAnd we've done less than we could,We've taken chances with our fateOh, let us hope it's not too late. We need to change our mindsBefore the world unwinds,Learn of the patterns and the flows,From where life comes and where it goes. We need to change our schoolsAnd rearrange our tools,Teach our children how to shareAnd teach each other how to care.
In other words (and please sing along):We need to change our ways