My paper "Framing the Problem: Knowledge Brokers in the Multiple Streams Approach" has been nominated to the ECPR Wildenmann Prize. It is awarded to a young scientist for presenting the best paper at the ECPR Joint Sessions of Workshops. I presented my paper at the Joint Sessions in Mainz, 11-16 March this year. About the prize, see the ECPR web site.

I succesfully defended my PhD thesis Vetenskaplig osäkerhet i policyprocessen. En studie av svensk klimatpolitik (Scientific uncertainty in the policy process. A study of Swedish climate policy) on 2 October 2009.

The dissertation is about scientific uncertainty in the policy process, that is when scientific knowledge about an issue is lacking or the existing knowledge is uncertain. The aim of the study is to understand if and how scientific uncertainty affects the policy process. For that purpose, the development of climate change policy in Sweden is studied, from 1975 until 2007. The material studied consists of interviews with politicians, bureaucrats and scientists, newspaper articles and debate articles, as well as governmental and agency material. The theoretical framework developed and used in the dissertation builds on John Kingdon’s multiple streams framework as well as insights from Science and Technology Studies, relating to the production of knowledge and the relation between scientists and society.

The study shows that scientific uncertainty is only one among many factors that affect the policy process and that it has a limited influence. The area where scientific uncertainty, in the case studied, has had most influence is in the selection and formulation of policies. There policy makers have used a number of ways to make decisions in the face of uncertainty. These include reframing the issue so that uncertainties are no longer relevant, relying on the precautionary principle, requesting more research, and basing decisions on the judgment of scientists. The most common way of managing uncertainty has been to reframe the issue. In the case studied, scientific uncertainty has made scientists very influential as to how climate change has come to be understood as a political problem. Yet they have had a very limited influence over the formulation of climate policy.

Here you can find the dissertation in fulltext.

I held a presentation on "Filosoficirkeln" in Lund where I drew out the conclusions from the dissertation and talked about what we can expect from scientists and policy-makers. The presentation is in Swedish and can be found here.

I currently work as senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science.

Research interests
My main research interest lies in how society manages environmental problems. These problems pose great challenges to our political systems, as they are often both transboundary and highly uncertain in character. In my dissertation I explored how policy-makers act in the face of scientific uncertainty. I am currently working on how the long time frames involved in managing the environment affects policy making. This issue is manifested for example in the Swedish environmental objectives gathered under the generational goal. Together with a group of scholars from several departments at Lund University I am currently studying the goals on climate change in connection with consumption. For more information see the project webpage at the Pufendorf Institute.

For more information about environmental research and teaching activities by researchers at the Department of Political Science, go to the Environmental Politics Research Group’s website (see below).