Green Groups and Grey Areas: Scientific Boundary-Work, Nongovernmental Organisations, and Environmental Knowledge
- 1 June 2006
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space
- Vol. 38 (6), 1061-1076
- https://doi.org/10.1068/a37287
Abstract
In this paper we examine the role of nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) in debates about environmental science and knowledge, using empirical evidence from in-depth interviews with a range of NGOs involved in the waste debate in the United Kingdom. We discuss theoretical issues of scientific boundary-work and the construction of expertise and socially distributed knowledge, and then apply these to our empirical evidence. Our conclusions are that NGOs continue to subscribe to the notion of the preeminent authority of science in environmental debates, but also work partly in a more diverse, highly networked world of knowledge production which requires them to be pragmatic and versatile in how they legitimate knowledge from various sources. Hence, scientific knowledge is highly contingent in its authority, and dependent upon continual (re)negotiation.Keywords
This publication has 24 references indexed in Scilit:
- Organizing CredibilitySocial Studies of Science, 2003
- Breaking the Waves in Science StudiesSocial Studies of Science, 2003
- Climate Research: an article unleashed worldwide stormsClimate Research, 2003
- What is the Problem with Experts?Social Studies of Science, 2001
- Emotion, Science and Rationality: The Case of the Brent SparEnvironmental Values, 1999
- ‘We Have the Facts’—How Business Claims Legitimacy in the Environmental DebateEnvironment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 1999
- Nature's advocates: putting science to work in environmental organisationsPublished by Cambridge University Press (CUP) ,1996
- Skills, Deals and Impartiality: The Sale of Environmental Consultancy Skills and Public Perceptions of Scientific NeutralitySocial Studies of Science, 1992
- Contested Boundaries in Policy-Relevant ScienceSocial Studies of Science, 1987
- Boundary-Work and the Demarcation of Science from Non-Science: Strains and Interests in Professional Ideologies of ScientistsAmerican Sociological Review, 1983