Three Cultural Boundaries of Science, Institutions, and Policy: A Cultural Theory of Coproduction, Boundary‐Work, and Change

To help explain the role scientists play in policy change, concepts such as coproduction, boundary‐work, and pollution and purity claims as they are used in science studies should be incorporated into policy theory. Moreover improved policy theory should specify the kinds of boundary‐work that can o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Review of policy research 2017-11, Vol.34 (6), p.827-853
Main Author: Swedlow, Brendon
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Boundaries
Cultural theory
developed countries
economic development
environment
governance
Institutions
Land
national governance
Policy making
Pollution
Prescription drugs
Purity
Reforms
regional governance
Scientists
Values
Wildlife
Wildlife management
Work
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Summary:To help explain the role scientists play in policy change, concepts such as coproduction, boundary‐work, and pollution and purity claims as they are used in science studies should be incorporated into policy theory. Moreover improved policy theory should specify the kinds of boundary‐work that can occur and the kinds of values and beliefs that drive boundary‐work, explaining how boundary‐work leads to policy change. The cultural theory (CT) developed by Mary Douglas, Michael Thompson, Aaron Wildavsky, and others can help specify conditions for coproduction and change in science, institutions, and policy when recast as a theory involving three critical institutional boundaries. This theory‐development article uses this recast version of CT to help explain the most recent dramatic shift in federal land and wildlife management policy in the Pacific Northwest. The article illustrates how cultural combatants use boundary‐work including pollution and purity claims to align themselves and the domain of authoritative science with scientists whose constructs of nature and policy prescriptions are functional for their preferred institutions.
ISSN:1541-132X
1541-1338
DOI:10.1111/ropr.12233