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NORMATIVE SCIENCE: A CORRUPTING INFLUENCE IN ECOLOGICAL POLICY?
Citation:
Lackey, R T. NORMATIVE SCIENCE: A CORRUPTING INFLUENCE IN ECOLOGICAL POLICY? Presented at 76th Annual Meeting of Northwest Scientific Association, Forks, WA, March 27-28, 2003.
Description:
Is normative science corrupting the proper use of science in evaluating ecological policy options? Science is "normative" when it contains tacit policy values and thus, by extension, supports particular policy preferences. He will use the case study of "ecosystem health" as an example of commonly used normative science. Often, even among scientists as evidenced by the common usage of normative science, "ecology" has been treated more as a belief system than a science. It is easy, even encouraged, for ecologists to abuse privileged roles in ecological policy debates by surreptitiously labeling personal values and policy preferences as "science." The ecological policy concerns that engender widespread debate over ecosystem health and other normative science constructs, however, will not disappear. These concerns need to be addressed because of increasing demand on limited ecological resources. The resolution of ecological policy, and the demand for policy-neutral science, is likely to become increasingly challenging because interactions among the planet, its non-human inhabitants, and its large, and still expanding, human population constitute a dynamic system of increasing complexity. Whether or not scientists (or others) find intellectual sustenance in the use of normative science, the policy concerns it attempts to confront are genuine.