‘Dialogues of the deaf’ on science in policy controversies

M J G van Eeten

Science and Public Policy, 1999, vol. 26, issue 3, 185-192

Abstract: This paper discusses the role of science in policy controversies. Policy analysis has found that some of the most intractable controversies are trapped in a ‘dialogue of the deaf’. In the dialogues of the deaf on ‘wicked problems’ the boundaries between science and politics are blurred. Thus, they pose a clear empirical corroboration of the scientification of politics and the politicisation of science. Policy analysis needs to go beyond these claims however, as its raison d'être lies in the improvement of policy-making. How can we deal with these dialogues of the deaf and what role has science to play in this? Should we not focus more on democratic or market-like approaches, as science apparently cannot come to grips with these issues? This paper concludes by connecting these insights from policy analysis to the paradoxes of science in politics. Copyright , Beech Tree Publishing.

Date: 1999
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