Closing the Future

Environmental Research and the Management of Conflicting Future Value Orders

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5337746
AutoresJenny Andersson (0000-0001-7766-9827, MaxPo, Sciences Po, Paris, France), Erik Westholm (Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences)
Año2019
Volumen44
Número2
Páginas237-262
Fecha de publicación2019-03-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaScience Technology & Human Values (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0162-2439 • E-ISSN: 1552-8251
EditorialSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0162243918791263
OpenAlexW4289685036
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas28
Referencias citadas23

This paper examines a struggle over the future use of Nordic forests, which took place from 2009 to 2012 within a major research program, Future Forests-Sustainable Strategies under Uncertainty and Risk, organized and funded by Mistra, The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Environmental Research. We explore the role of strategic environmental research in societal constructions of long-term challenges and future risks. Specifically, we draw attention to the role played by environmental research in the creation of future images that become dominant for how societies structure action for the long term. We also show that this process is on several accounts problematic. Research labeled "strategic" or "relevant" is intended to manage long-term risks and challenges in a sustainable way, by taking into account the "open" and "plural" nature of the future. The case of Future Forests suggests, rather, that by contributing to the emergence of dominant future images, environmental research is entangled with a process of gradual consensus creation around what may be highly selective or biased narratives of the long term, which may conceal or postpone key forms of future conflict

Plural · Value (mathematics · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Forest Management and Policy · Sustainability and Climate Change Governance