TY - JOUR
T1 - Knowledge uncertainties in environmental conflicts
T2 - How the mussel fishery controversy in the Dutch Wadden Sea became depoliticised
AU - R. Floor, Judith
AU - (Kris) van Koppen, C.S.A.
AU - Tatenhove, Jan P.M van
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - Policy-makers and scientists often expect that controversies in public policy can be solved by gathering more knowledge, even though this linear model of expertise is widely criticised in social studies of science. To shed more light on this expectation, the role of scientific uncertainties in controversies on mussel fishery in the Dutch Wadden Sea (1990–2016) is investigated. The analysis shows that mussel fishery regulation decisions were primarily based on government authority, not on scientific knowledge. Expectations of policy-makers and scientists on conflict resolution by more research were not met, because the knowledge debate was politicised over ambiguous knowledge claims. The controversy was depoliticised by a political covenant between the conflicting parties. The case study confirms that science based knowledge fails to guide policy-making as expected in the linear model, and demonstrates how science plays important strategic, procedural and instrumental roles in structuring interactions between stakeholders in nature protection conflicts.
AB - Policy-makers and scientists often expect that controversies in public policy can be solved by gathering more knowledge, even though this linear model of expertise is widely criticised in social studies of science. To shed more light on this expectation, the role of scientific uncertainties in controversies on mussel fishery in the Dutch Wadden Sea (1990–2016) is investigated. The analysis shows that mussel fishery regulation decisions were primarily based on government authority, not on scientific knowledge. Expectations of policy-makers and scientists on conflict resolution by more research were not met, because the knowledge debate was politicised over ambiguous knowledge claims. The controversy was depoliticised by a political covenant between the conflicting parties. The case study confirms that science based knowledge fails to guide policy-making as expected in the linear model, and demonstrates how science plays important strategic, procedural and instrumental roles in structuring interactions between stakeholders in nature protection conflicts.
KW - Depoliticisation
KW - Wadden Sea
KW - knowledge expectations
KW - knowledge uncertainties
KW - mussel fishery
KW - science-policy interactions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057344661&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09644016.2018.1546561
DO - 10.1080/09644016.2018.1546561
M3 - Journal article
SN - 0964-4016
VL - 28
SP - 1236
EP - 1258
JO - Environmental Politics
JF - Environmental Politics
IS - 7
ER -