Skip to content

Multilateralism as a ‘site’ of struggle over environmental knowledge: the North-South divide

Vadrot, A.B.M. 2020. Multilateralism as a ‘site’ of struggle over environmental knowledge: the North-South divide. Critical Policy Studies 14(2): 233-245.

Abstract

This forum piece discusses why multilateral spaces are key ‘sites’ for studying struggles over environmental knowledge and how Collaborative Event Ethnography (CEE) can open up new avenues for Critical Policy Studies. Frank Fischer has argued that contestation over environmental knowledge is a discursive struggle over whose reality counts. Yet, the analysis of the structuring and ordering effects of ‘text’ also benefits from CEE during multilateral environmental agreement making, where participants dispute the meaning and place of words in the written document being negotiated. I will use the example of marine biodiversity negotiations to illustrate that the debate over environmental knowledge bears the deep mark of long-standing global imbalances between the Global North and the Global South. In order to understand these global imbalances and how they shape the ability of actors to determine the outcome of text-based negotiations I propose to link CEE to empirical studies of scientific fields. I will conclude by arguing that the potential of multilateral spaces to shift the epistemic order and change the world order for the better is the main reason why we should care about their future after the COVID-19 crisis has passed and find ways to strengthen their legitimacy.

 

Read Here

You might like these publication categories

Recent publications

2022 Annual Report

Curious to know about the various parts of the Earth System Governance Project, and what has been achieved in 2022?…

Global Shifts: Business, Politics, and Deforestation in a Changing World Economy

What global shifts in markets and power mean for the politics and governance of sustainability. In recent years, major shifts…

Earth System Governance – Volume 16

We are delighted to present the sixteenth volume of Earth System Governance, the new open-access journal for all those interested…