Scientific Knowledge in a Value-laden Public Policy-Making Process: The COMMUNITY Framework for Consensus-Based Management of Wicked Problems

Abstract:

"Wicked" problems generally feature incomplete or contradictory scientific knowledge, multiple divergent political values among participants, unforeseen or unknown long-term impacts, and otherwise exhibit a high degree of complexity. Many environmental issues, such as global climate change, are good examples of the problematic nature of wicked problems. The role of scientific knowledge in the policy-making process can differ based on whether social and political values are aligned or divergent. To better understand the dynamic nature of the science-policy interface as it relates to issues such as global climate change, we propose a comprehensive approach that incorporates stakeholder engagement, the role of scientific knowledge, and specific stages of the policy-making process into the hybrid framework: COMMunicating UNilaterally, Involving a TYpology (COMMUNITY).

Scholars of public policy often employ a stage-oriented heuristic to examine sub-sets of the policy-making process. In policy-making processes technocrats argue for expert knowledge to define the problem, set a legislative agenda, and design policies. We argue for the inclusion of local knowledge through stakeholder engagement. This participatory process has the greatest potential to integrate diverse knowledge forms to define and identify environmental problems, and design consensus-based management approaches.

The preliminary COMMUNITY framework that we present integrates the policy-making process stages heuristic, the stakeholder engagement approach, and a typology that cross tabulates two dimensions: the degree of scientific uncertainty and the degree of value consensus. We argue these two variables determine the role of scientific knowledge in problem definition and policy design of the public policy-making process. This framework effectively integrates knowledge within a stakeholder engagement policy-making process for application as a working model allowing for redesigning of ineffective, outdated policies and processes. This model will offer a more holistic problem definition, creative on-the-ground solutions to wicked problems; and have the potential to mitigate the compromises resulting from the politics of public policy-making allowing for more efficient civic-governance of a changing climate.