Title: Mobilising high-quality knowledge through dialogic environmental governance: a comparison of approaches and their institutional settings

Authors: Scott Bremer

Addresses: Centre for the Study of the Science and the Humanities, University of Bergen, P.O. Box 7805, NO-5020 Bergen, Norway

Abstract: An increasing tendency to classify environmental issues as 'wicked' has seen a wavering confidence in models of 'resource management' in favour of models of 'environmental governance'. This has come with an attendant shift in epistemological perspectives for the mobilisation of knowledge in support of society's collective deliberation and decision-making, with governance fields increasingly espousing a 'dialogic' approach. Looking through an 'interactive governance' lens, this article reveals a diversity of different forms of dialogue for the mobilisation of knowledge, before focusing on those forms that: a) are inclusive of all knowledge systems; b) bring together knowledge through reciprocal dialogue; c) allow for the negotiation of knowledge quality in terms of 'credibility, salience and legitimacy'. To this end, it unpacks and compares three specific approaches for the dialogic mobilisation of knowledge; deliberative democracy, collaborative learning and post-normal science.

Keywords: environmental governance; dialogic epistemology; deliberative democracy; collaborative learning; post-normal science; PNS; environmental issues; interactive governance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSD.2013.053791

International Journal of Sustainable Development, 2013 Vol.16 No.1/2, pp.66 - 90

Published online: 30 Jun 2014 *

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