TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards a reflexive turn in the governance of global environmental expertise
T2 - The cases of the IPCC and the IPBES
AU - Beck, Silke
AU - Borie, Maud
AU - Chilvers, Jason
AU - Esguerra, Alejandro
AU - Heubach, Katja
AU - Hulme, Michael
AU - Lidskog, Rolf
AU - Lovbrand, Eva
AU - Marquard, Elisabeth
AU - Miller, Clark
AU - Nadim, Tahani
AU - Neßhöver, Carsten
AU - Settele, Josef
AU - Turnhout, Esther
AU - Vasileiadou, Eleftheria
AU - Gorg, Christoph
PY - 2014/5
Y1 - 2014/5
N2 - This commentary asks what lessons can be learned from recent experiences with global expert organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the newly established Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). It demonstrates that the role and design of both global expert organizations needs rethinking. We suggest a reflexive turn that implies treating the governance of expertise as a matter of political contestation and normative choice. The reflexive turn differs from prevailing approaches to the institutional design of expert organizations in two constitutive features. First, it calls attention to their epistemological and normative frameworks and thus, second, it opens up a space to consider and evaluate the full range of alternative institutional design options as opposed to implementing a one-size-fits-all model of expertise. Opening up options for the governance of global environmental expertise, we argue, could not only contribute to rendering it more responsive, responsible and democratically accountable but also to catalyzing different political debates about societal transformation towards sustainability.
AB - This commentary asks what lessons can be learned from recent experiences with global expert organizations such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) or the newly established Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). It demonstrates that the role and design of both global expert organizations needs rethinking. We suggest a reflexive turn that implies treating the governance of expertise as a matter of political contestation and normative choice. The reflexive turn differs from prevailing approaches to the institutional design of expert organizations in two constitutive features. First, it calls attention to their epistemological and normative frameworks and thus, second, it opens up a space to consider and evaluate the full range of alternative institutional design options as opposed to implementing a one-size-fits-all model of expertise. Opening up options for the governance of global environmental expertise, we argue, could not only contribute to rendering it more responsive, responsible and democratically accountable but also to catalyzing different political debates about societal transformation towards sustainability.
U2 - 10.14512 / gaia.23.2.4
DO - 10.14512 / gaia.23.2.4
M3 - Article
SN - 0940-5550
VL - 23
SP - 80
EP - 87
JO - Gaia-Ecological perspectives for science and society
JF - Gaia-Ecological perspectives for science and society
IS - 2
ER -
