Multiple Ontologies of Evidence-Based Policy: The Case of Nature Type Mapping

Abstract

The notion of evidence-based policy (EBP) has gained massive popularity in policymaking worldwide. But EBP has also been criticized for relying on positivist ideals of science and ignoring how science is related to power. We investigate a decades-long controversy over a specific tool of Norway’s strategy for EBP; namely that of Nature Type Mapping, a scheme to map biodiversity in all ecosystems. We apply the approach of ontological politics to ask whether different approaches to the evidence and policy can enact multiple ontologies of EBP. Our analysis shows that two approaches indeed did enact two co-existing realities. Whereas one approach enacted a prescriptive and reflexive EBP ontology; another approach enacted a detached and shapable EBP ontology. We then discuss how visions for ontological singularity and questions of which ontology should prevail played into political struggles to define environmental policies.