Knowledge production, environmental expertise and learning

Research theme III

In all aspects of sustainability problems, (scientific) knowledge, expertise, and learning are at the core. This is especially so when it comes to environmental problems which dependent on science to be defined and explained. With the growing amount of socially and technologically generated environmental risks, e.g. climate change, individuals and organizations at all levels of society daily need to relate to and make use of complex information and knowledge in their decision-making. Thus, now more than ever, it is of great importance to understand the processes that precede the knowledge and expertise that we so heavily depend on for the creation of social change and sustainability transformations. Where does it come from, how is it produced, who is producing it, and how is it used and with what results? At the same time, there is an increasing contestation of science, where some even claim that we are running towards a post-truth society where the epistemic authority of science is increasingly challenged. The multidisciplinarity of CESSS creates a unique opportunity to improve our understanding of how knowledge, expertise, and learning contributes to social change and sustainability transformations, as well as why it does not.

For more information on additional publications, visit each researcher’s individual web page, to which you find links in the tab ‘Researchers’ on CESSS’s start page.