Focus area 3 – Knowledge – Mistra Environmental Communication

Focus area 3 – Knowledge

The constitution of knowledge and truth in environmental communication

Scientific knowledge is increasingly contested today in manifold ways – and perhaps nowhere as much as in the field of environmental policy and sustainability transitions. This focus area sheds light on such contestations by an emerging anti-scientific attitude and the spread of post-truth relativism. On this basis, we examine the interconnections between knowledge and action. What knowledge can form the basis of individual and collective action? How can environmental communication catalyse action to address environmental challenges?

Theme leader

Anke Fischer

Leader of the focus area Knowledge
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Email

My research in this programme is driven by a curiosity for the interactions between emotions, values and knowledge-based arguments in discourses about the environment and environmental governance.

The role of scientific knowledge in decision-making about environmental issues is increasingly contested in a variety of ways and by different actors. In our research we investigate three areas of concern: 

The tensions that arise between post-truth relativism and a critical engagement with science and knowledge that is democratically legitimate and desirable
How and with which aims emotions, values and knowledge are used and pitted against each other in public discourse on environmental decision-making – and what implications this has.
How knowledge, emotions and values are brought together in the crafting of stories, i.e., narratives that are developed and told intentionally to convince or persuade.

We examine three different case study areas: (i) governance of the low-carbon transition, (ii) new genetic technologies in agriculture and food production and (iii) nature interpretation.

We work closely with the following societal partners: the Swedish Environment Protection Agency, the Swedish Centre for Nature Interpretation (SCNI-SLU), Biotopia (formerly the Biological museum in Uppsala), and the Swedish Hunters’ Association.

Publications

Sverige riskerar att bli känt som klimatkrisens gulaschbaron

Debate article

Debate article in Dagens Nyheter by researchers in Mistra Environmental Communication: Anke Fischer, Eva Friman, Jutta Haider och Sara Holmgren.