Rethinking Environmental Expertise

As the world faces urgent calls for transformative environmental change, the role of expertise has never been more critical. This incisive book examines how scientific claims compete with deeply-rooted identities, values and interests and why this so often results in knowledge resistance and a failure to act.Rolf Lidskog and Göran Sundqvist demonstrate that environmental expertise is pivotal for any viable development to take place, as this depends on scientific facts being translated into socially accepted truths and meaningful societal responses. They make a crucial distinction between expert knowledge (specialist competence) and expertise (the relational and embedded practice of translating knowledge into socially trusted advice) and highlight the importance of expertise in bridging scientific knowledge and political realities. Chapters draw on science and technology studies and sociology, using practical examples to highlight the persistent gap between knowledge and action. Rethinking Environmental Expertise concludes that addressing today’s crises demands a fundamental rethinking of what expertise is and how it works across complex and contested contexts. This insightful book is a critical resource for scholars and students of environmental social science and interdisciplinary environmental studies, as well as sociology, international relations and political science. It will also benefit academics and practitioners in science, engineering and technology.