Re-working boundaries: values and legitimation at the climate science–policy interface

Acknowledging the science–policy interface as an important site through which climate change is framed; this thesis provides an examination of the politics of boundary work. Through an analysis of the Scottish climate science–policy interface, the thesis draws attention to the discursive value framings involved in the making of climate responses – understood as discourses in which value commitments and orientations towards particular outcomes have been foregrounded. Empirical research focuses specifically on boundary work undertaken by ClimateXChange, a boundary organisation established by the Scottish Government in 2011. Comparing the work of ClimateXChange with boundary work by other science–policy actors, the thesis examines how different forms of boundary work enable different types of knowledge to circulate. Practices such as translation, science communication, co-production and knowledge brokerage construct legitimate knowledge differently, contributing to the legitimation and reproduction of particular discursive value framings over others. Offering an in-depth analysis of these boundary processes, the thesis opens up critical questions about the concept of ‘translation’, draws attention to how boundary practices construct claims for legitimacy, and to the multiple, cumulative and interacting micro-sites of boundary work through which passionate actors are legitimating different forms of political subjectivity. Combining an STS approach to science – policy boundary work with Chantal Mouffe’s political theory to foreground questions of values, legitimacy and hegemonic power, the thesis draws attention to the value commitments of discourse. In doing so the thesis suggests potential for re-theorising values from a post-structuralist perspective, in order to contest hegemonic claims to value neutrality and account for passionate affective relations with discourse. This attention to the politics of boundary work illustrates the way in which scientific knowledge circulating at the science–policy interface in Scotland frames possible responses to climate change through discourses of economic growth and quantifying and pricing carbon. Such moves reproduce hegemonic policy values and prompt critical engagement with moves towards demand-led science–policy interaction

Impact from critical research: what might it look like and what support is required?

As demands for demonstrating impact are increasingly woven throughout the funding and institutional architectures of higher education, concerns have been raised that the impact agenda could adversely affect critical and blue-skies research, favouring instead research that lends itself more easily to societal uptake. Ahead of REF 2021, Ruth Machen considers what impact from critical research could look like and how assessment frameworks could support, rather than squeeze out, space for critical research. Four modes of critical research impact are outlined: challenging policy; empowering resistances; platforming voices; and nurturing new critical publics

Resocializing digital water transformations : outlining social science perspectives on the digital water journey

Funding information: National Cyber Security Centre; Scottish Government, Grant/Award Number: Hydro Nation Scholars; University of Manchester, Grant/Award Number: Presidential fellowship; University of Manchester, Grant/Award Number: SEED PGR scholarship (Amankwaa).Digital water transformation is often written about as though universally desirable and inevitable, capable of addressing the multifaceted socioecological challenges that water systems face. However, there is not widespread reflection on the complexities, tensions and unintended consequences of digital transformation, its social and political dimensions are often neglected. This article introduces case studies of digital water development, bringing examples of technological innovation into dialogue with literature and empirical research from across the social sciences. We examine how Big Data affects our observations of water in society to shape water management, how the Internet of Things becomes involved in reproducing unjust water politics, how digital platforms are entangled in the varied sociocultural landscape of everyday water use, and how opensource technologies provide new possibilities for participatory water governance. We also reflect on regulatory developments and the possible trajectories of innovation resulting from public‐private sector interactions. A socially and politically informed view of digital water is essential for just and sustainable development, and the gap between industry visions of digital water and research within the social sciences is inhibitive. Thus, the analysis presented in this article provides a novel, pluralistic perspective on digital water development and outlines what is required for more inclusive future scholarship, policy and practice.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Intervention : Engaging post-foundational political theory requires an ‘enmeshed’ approach

This intervention argues for renewed engagements with post-foundational political theory (PFPT) within political geography. We feel that post-foundational political geography may be on the cusp of becoming consolidated as a distinct and expansive approach to political geographic scholarship, but we argue that reductionist and binary caricatures of its central distinction between ‘politics’ and ‘the political’ must be avoided for it to reach its full potential. To this end, we suggest that ‘politics’ and ‘the political’ need to be considered as more ‘enmeshed’ than they have often been represented. We write as four political geographers and will, each in our own ways, highlight how an ‘enmeshed’ approach to PFPT can better translate its conceptual interventions into political geographic research whilst facilitating productive encounters with the broader worlds of critical geographic inquiry.publishedVersionPeer reviewe