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Ir. Bert Satijn

"Providing new space for water to restore the resilience of the water system and to create a su...


Theme 3    Practical Approaches to Boundary Work

Session 3.6    Implications for the Science-policy Interface

Day 3: Thursday, the  27th of August 2009, 09.00 - 11.00

Unilinearity in the transfer of knowledge from science to policy is empirically discredited. Science-Politics interactions are dialoges and dialectics between the politicization of science and the science-tization of society and politics (Weingart). Of course, this does not mean a complete blurring of the boundaries.

Rather, the science-policy interface may be conceptualized as boundary work. It is, like a living apart together relationship, simultaneously about keeping distance by demarcation of your own domain (expert advice resp. policy work), and staying close enough to coordinate your activities.
Boundary work occurs in a vast array of types of boundary arrangements.

In the Netherlands alone this runs from highly institutionalised boundary organizations like the Center for Economic Policy Analysis (CPB) or the Scientific Council for Government Policy (WRR), to mission-oriented sectoral councils (like the Advisory Council for Research on Spatial Planning, Nature and the Environment,  RMNO) and research ‘centers of excellence’, all the way to informal hybrid real-time or virtual forums where academics, professionals, business and government officials meet around shared problems (Halffman & Hoppe, 2005). The ‘ideal-type’ boundary organisation may be characterised by properties like (Guston, Clark, Miller, Halffman):

  • Double participation
  • Dual accountability
  • Creation and maintenance of a suitable set of  (textual) boundary objects
  • Production of salient, flexible and legitimate information
  • Co-production of social and cognitive order, using practices of negotiation and confrontation
  • Mediation
  • Meta-governance and capacity building, i.e. cross-jurisdictional, cross-level and cross-scale orchestration of distributed knowledge production.

Chair: prof. Robert Hoppe, University of Twente, the Netherlands

Panel speakers: 

  • drs. Sarah Cummings, Communications Coordinator, IKM Emergent, the Netherlands
  • dr. Iina Hellsten, Assistant Professor, VU University Amsterdam, the Netherlands 
  • Martin Schulz, Advisor, Berenschot consultancy, the Netherlands
  • prof. Dirk Wolfson, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Netherlands 


Papers & abstracts

Iina Hellsten and Sarah Cummings, Boundaries of trans-disciplinary communications: bibliometrical  analysis of development cooperation
To download their paper, please click here.
Dirk Wolfson, The mismatch between knowledge and democracy
To download his paper, please click here.
Robert Hoppe, Scientific Advice and Public Policy, Expert Advisers and Policymakers discourses on Boundary Work
To download his paper, please click here.


Presentations

Sarah Cummings and Iina Hellsten
To download their powerpoint presentation, please click here.
Robert Hoppe
To download his powerpoint presentation, please click here.
Dirk Wolfson
To download his powerpoint presentation, please click here.

An initiative of

RMNO

Organised by RMNO, in co-operation with

Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM) Ministery of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) Ministery of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) Ministery of Transport, Public Works and Water Management (VenW) Dutch Office for the Senior Civil Service (ABD)
The EEAC network is a unique collaboration between the councils set up by European governments to provide independent and scientifically based advice on the environment and sustainable development. The network is a powerful tool for sharing information and experience across Europe.
The aim of the WRR is to advise the government about future developments of great public interest using a scientific approach. The government can use these advisory opinions in order to readjust existing policy, or to develop new policy or as support for decision making. The Council also tries to stimulate scientific debate. In this way, the WRR forms a bridge between scientific expertise and policy.
Leiden University (UL) is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The three guiding principles of the University are: 1. an international orientation, 2. the research-intensive character of the University and 3. maintaining the quality of education and research.
The Rathenau Institute is an independent organization that concerns itself with issues on the interface between science, technology and society, and that provides politicians with timely and well-considered  information.
As the forum, conscience, and voice of the arts and sciences in the Netherlands, the Academy (KNAW) promotes the quality of scientific and scholarly work and strives to ensure that Dutch scholars and scientists make the best possible contribution to the cultural, social, and economic development of Dutch society.
TransForum is an innovation programme that aims to provide a more sustainable perspective for the Dutch agro-sector and green spaces by searching for and experimenting with new value propositions. 
Situated at what has traditionally been an important junction where waterways and roads cross stands a city that will enchant you: Leiden. The city is famous for its almshouses, university, museums and glorious history. The spirit of the Golden Age lives on here, a place where Rembrandt was born and inspired so many other influential painters. But even after this era Leiden continued to attract scientists, artists and industry. Meet Leiden, Key to Discovery.
The European Environment Agency (EEA) is an agency of the European Union. Our task is to provide sound, independent information on the environment. We are a major information source for those involved in developing, adopting, implementing and evaluating environmental policy, and also the general public. Currently, the EEA has 32 member countries.
ScienceGuide.nl is the leading online magazine for the Dutch knowledge sector. With news, backgrounds, discussion and thematic platforms it serves to strengthen the interest in and the dialogue about the value of higher education, R&D and their contribution to society.
The Council for Public Administration (Rob) advises on the structure and functioning of the government. The aim is to improve effectiveness and efficiency. The Rob devotes particular attention to the basic principles of the democratic rule of law.
The European Commission (EC) embodies and upholds the general interest of the Union and is the driving force in the Union's institutional system. Its four main roles are to propose legislation to Parliament and the Council, to administer and implement Community policies, to enforce Community law (jointly with the Court of Justice) and to negotiate international agreements, mainly those relating to trade and cooperation.
The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) funds thousands of top researchers at universities and institutes and steers the course of Dutch science by means of subsidies and research programmes.
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