NGOs, the Science-Lay Dichotomy, and Hybrid Spaces of Environmental Knowledge

Abstract

In debates about science and the environment, the “science-lay dichotomy is both highly tenuous and highly tenacious” (Irwin & Michael, 2003, p. 124). It is tenacious because, despite continual criticism from social scientists, it continues to underpin the “cognitive-deficit model” of the public understanding of science. The deficit model rests on the assumption that the lay public is unscientific, unspecialized, and often ignorant (or at least poorly informed) about the details of scientific and technological developments and are therefore normally excluded from decisions about how science and the environment is managed. It is consequently also assumed in the model that this exclusion and lack of knowledge breed public distrust in scientific developments and their regulation and, therefore, that this distrust must be corrected by providing more information and improving public education about these matters.