Science, the environment and the public

Public sociology is a sociology of, for, and with the public. Regarding science and the environment, this means studying how publics over scientific and environmental issues arise and decline and how science and the environment are governed, and supporting related social claims and concerns. Against this backdrop, the chapter addresses the link between public, science and environmental policies, showing how science has been caught in a struggle between depoliticization and politicization that has undermined expert authority and trust in techno-scientific progress. The broadening of the public review of innovation has left unaddressed structural imbalances and injustices. Science and nature ‘neoliberalization’ has engendered an ontological blurring, emblematized by the Anthropocene narrative, whereby withdrawing western dualisms of mind and body, matter and cognition, has strengthened rather than weakened exploitation, affecting both the case for sound science and for science deconstruction. In this framework a public sociology of science and the environment is increasingly demanding – and needed.