Work

Post-normal science communication? Evidence of third-order thinking among sustainability scientists

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Mounting socio-environmental crises have prompted calls for post-normal sustainability science, emphasising complexity, uncertainty, and epistemic pluralism, and framing science communication as dialogical and reflexive. However, previous research has identified a gap between these ideals and actual practices, where conventional norms of objectivity and expert authority often prevail. Drawing on Irwin's (2021) framework of socio-technical orders of thinking, we analyse interviews with 12 leading Danish sustainability scientists. Our thematic analysis shows that scientists pragmatically navigate between first-order (expert-led), second-order (inclusive), and third-order (reflexive and power-aware) modes of thinking. While third-order thinking emerges as integral to sustainability science, traditional assumptions about authority and neutrality continue to shape scientists' communication practices. These findings invite science communication scholars to view sustainability science as a fertile ground for developing and testing pluralistic, reflexive, and power-aware communication models, while also learning from the situated practices of scientists who already navigate these complexities in context.

Source: Public Understanding of Science

DOI: 10.1177/09636625251390482

Authors: Marianne Achiam, Alan Irwin

Institutions: University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen Business School, Aarhus University

Language: English

Topic: Climate Change Communication and Perception

Subfield: Sociology and Political Science

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funder: Novo Nordisk Fonden

Award: G8036678467