TY - JOUR

T1 - Boundary speak in sustainability studies

T2 - Computational reading of a transversal field

AU - Herberg, Jeremias

AU - Schmitz, Seán

AU - Stasiak, Dorota

AU - Schmieg, Gregor

N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press.

PY - 2021/6/10

Y1 - 2021/6/10

N2 - This article discusses the role of language in the collaboration between science, policy, and society. Combining computational methods of corpus linguistics (manifold learning) with sociological field theories, we analyze approximately 30,000 articles that were published in the field of transdisciplinary sustainability studies. We show that the field oscillates between deliberative and technocratic vocabularies and can therefore be characterized as a transversal field. We conclude that researchers who collaborate in science–society interstices are thrown into a semantic pluralism that cannot be boiled down to a common language. For transdisciplinary research practice and corresponding science policies, this involves trade-offs between generating a homogenous language and a collaborative appeal; between creating a stable creole and a situated semantic plurality. A corresponding theoretical viewpoint and science policy approach should be based on a pluralist view on the science–society–policy interplay.

AB - This article discusses the role of language in the collaboration between science, policy, and society. Combining computational methods of corpus linguistics (manifold learning) with sociological field theories, we analyze approximately 30,000 articles that were published in the field of transdisciplinary sustainability studies. We show that the field oscillates between deliberative and technocratic vocabularies and can therefore be characterized as a transversal field. We conclude that researchers who collaborate in science–society interstices are thrown into a semantic pluralism that cannot be boiled down to a common language. For transdisciplinary research practice and corresponding science policies, this involves trade-offs between generating a homogenous language and a collaborative appeal; between creating a stable creole and a situated semantic plurality. A corresponding theoretical viewpoint and science policy approach should be based on a pluralist view on the science–society–policy interplay.

KW - Sustainability Science

KW - Sustainability Governance

KW - scirence-society-policy interplay

KW - trading zone

KW - computational methods

KW - transdisciplinarity sustainability Studies

KW - Sociological field theory

KW - deliberation and technocracy

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85112031164&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/06f41caf-4d84-38f8-8728-1f74de3b7ac2/

U2 - 10.1093/scipol/scab006

DO - 10.1093/scipol/scab006

M3 - Scientific review articles

VL - 48

SP - 398

EP - 411

JO - Science and Public Policy

JF - Science and Public Policy

SN - 0302-3427

IS - 3

ER -