Power and Truth in Science-Related Populism

Rethinking the Role of Knowledge and Expertise in Climate Politics

Bibliographic Data

ID6344703
AuthorsJohn M Meyer (0000-0003-3565-7435, California Polytechnic State University, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume72
Issue3
Pages845-861
Publication date2024-08-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolitical Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0032-3217 • E-ISSN: 1467-9248
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00323217231160370
OpenAlexW4328110733
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited42

Populism is often characterized as a rejection of scientific expertise and a key obstacle to societies’ ability to address the climate crisis today. I challenge this account, arguing for a more inclusive conception of populism and a more critical account of expertise. Consistent with this, I delineate a range of responses to the challenges of climate politics in populist times. In doing so, I have two primary aims: first, to highlight limitations of “anti-populist” responses among proponents of climate change action, and, second, to lean into populist criticisms of elite expertise, by delineating how some challenges to dominant forms of science and elite power are themselves expert knowledge and integral to promising movements that address climate change. This can allow expertise to be distinguished from elitism and to be recognized in caring relations to the subjects of knowledge. Here, expertise is not manifest as separation from the common world, but as immersion in it

Climate change · Climate science · Elite · Elitism · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Populism · Power (physics · Sociology · Law · Misinformation and Its Impacts · Populism, Right-Wing Movements · Social Media and Politics

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Open DOIOpen Access