How boundary objects help to perform roles of science arbiter, honest broker, and issue advocate

Simo Sarkki, Hannu I Heikkinen, Teresa Komu, Mari Partanen, Karoliina Vanhanen and Élise Lépy

Science and Public Policy, 2020, vol. 47, issue 2, 161-171

Abstract: We examine roles and knowledge by which researchers can enhance connections between science, policy, and society. We arranged a participatory scenario workshop with representatives from environmental administration to discuss how different land-use governance arrangements link to sustainability of reindeer herding in northern Finland. We used fast track scenarios as boundary objects that aimed to bring reindeer herders’ problem definitions to be discussed with administrators. First, we performed the role of science arbiter by using our previous research with reindeer herders as the starting point for the discussions. Next, we discussed and elaborated diverse future alternatives via the role of honest broker. Finally, we were interpreted as issue advocates because the scenario exercise reduced the scope of preferable policy options for administrators. Performing these boundary-spanning roles in the same process, but each, in turn, enables researchers to offer views on sustainability via scenarios that break easily acceptable conventions.

Keywords: administrators; boundary spanning; environmental change; exploratory scenarios; land use governance; reindeer herding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/scipol/scz055 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:scippl:v:47:y:2020:i:2:p:161-171.

Access Statistics for this article

Science and Public Policy is currently edited by Nicoletta Corrocher, Jeong-Dong Lee, Mireille Matt and Nicholas Vonortas

More articles in Science and Public Policy from Oxford University Press
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().