Journal
SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY & HUMAN VALUES
Volume 36, Issue 3, Pages 389-412Publisher
SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC
DOI: 10.1177/0162243910385786
Keywords
post-normal science; science-policy interface; boundary work; frame reflection; policy making; power; problem typology
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Post-normal science (PNS) is presented by its proponents as a new way of doing science that deals with uncertainties, value diversity or antagonism, and high decision stakes and urgency, with the ultimate goal of remedying the pathologies of the global industrial system for which, according to Funtowicz and Ravetz, existing science forms the basis. The authors critically examine whether PNS can fulfill this claim in the light of empirical and theoretical work on politics and policy making. The authors credit PNS as an innovative frontrunner in raising important issues regarding the limited problem-solving capacity of normal science'' and professional consultancy.'' Yet, the authors notice that PNS lacks important considerations about the governance of problems and aspects of participatory and deliberative democracy. PNS in effect implies that methodological ratiocination'' would prevail over political deliberation and democratic interaction and that merely changing scientific input in public policy making would have the power to change its outcomes. This scientistic hubris can be traced back to PNS's origin in concerned scientists' activism, which in effect accessed the political arena through the scientific entrance. The authors conclude that the art of politics needs to come back into the discussion on environmental problems if societal change is to occur.
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