Ecosystems of expertise: design elements for robust science advice
There are many approaches explaining how scientific analysis can better inform public policy. In this seminar, I will take an ecosystem approach towards scientific expertise and science-based policy advice. From a bird’s perspective, providing scientific advice to public policy-making aims at increasing the resilience of democratic societies, i.e. to enhance the political actors’ capabilities to develop policy options that are robust in the light of uncertainty, complexity, dynamic change and ambiguity. I will give a brief outline of the design elements that govern the relationship between scientific expertise, political representation and decision-making, thereby focusing on the notions of epistemic and political robustness. I will conclude with a recent and controversial example of an advisory process from Germany that raises the question whether, under what circumstances and to what extent policy advice legitimately adopts a political stance on public policy issues.
Date:
24 November 2015, 15:00
Venue:
64 Banbury Road, 64 Banbury Road OX2 6PN
Venue Details:
InSIS Seminar Room
Speaker:
Dr Justus Lentsch (Goethe University)
Organising department:
Institute for Science, Innovation and Society
Organisers:
Dr Rob Bellamy (InSIS, University of Oxford),
Dr Sophie Haines (InSIS, University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
enquiries@insis.ox.ac.uk
Part of:
InSIS seminar series: Ecologies of Expertise
Topics:
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Sophie Haines
