Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 12
Science-Policy Interfaces in Impact
Assessment Procedures
Ann-Katrin Bäcklund, Jean Paul Bousset, Sara Brogaard,
Catherine Macombe, Marie Taverne, and Martin van Ittersum
Introduction
Science and politics serve different purposes. Policy commonly refers to an institutional
choice of values (Lee
1993, 2006)
. Policy options are ways (actions) to favour some
values and disfavour others. A policy development process is driven by forces that
can be characterised using three dimensions -
salience
,
credibility
and
legitimacy
(Cash and Buizer
2005)
. Salience relates to the relevance of the policy goals (issue
at stake). Credibility addresses the technical quality of the knowledge and information
used (validity and accuracy). Legitimacy concerns the society's interest in the policy.
Science on the other hand can be seen as the sum of knowledge produced by the
application of systematic methods of inquiry - including experience or learning
from actors and institutions, each guided by different epistemologies (what can be
known) and different ontologies (what is knowable) (Feynmann
1998)
.
