| Kommentar |
Trust and participation are considered key issues for sustainability transformations. They feature as important, sometimes crucial, factors in studies of technology deployment, decision making, climate change mitigation options, behavior change, etc. However, the particular meaning of these concepts varies much amongst different approaches and both have a considerable (and growing) sociological background. This raises many questions: whose trust in what is relevant to sustainability transformations? What does it mean to trust actors or technologies? Does participation always ensure more equitable decision making? How are trust and participation related?
In order to address these questions, we will 1) consider classically sociological approaches to trust and participation, 2) explore empirical studies on environmental issues that utilize concepts of trust and/or participation and 3) turn towards novel relational concepts of trust and participation.
The objectives of this course are threefold:
- to understand the theoretical underpinnings of trust and participation
- to analyse the conceptualization of trust and participation in environmental sociology and broader sustainability research
- to discuss which methods have been used to study trust and participation related to environmental issues.
The course is designed to provide students with the opportunity to choose topics from various fields related to trust and participation and to explore them in depth. This seminar shall enable students to critically assess how trust and participation are conceptualized and positioned in environmental research. The course is held alternately in person and online. |
| Literatur |
Barbalet, Jack (2009): A Characterization of Trust, and Its Consequences. In: Theory and Society, 38 (4), 367–382.
Engdahl, Emma/Lidskog, Rolf (2014): Risk, Communication and Trust: Towards an Emotional Understanding of Trust. In: Public Understanding of Science, SAGE Publications Ltd, 23 (6), 703–717.
Luhmann, Niklas (2005): Trust and Power: Two Works. Chichester [u.a.], Wiley.
Turnhout, Esther/Metze, Tamara/Wyborn, Carina/Klenk, Nicole/Louder, Elena (2020): The Politics of Co-Production: Participation, Power, and Transformation. In: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, 42, 15–21.
Wynne, Brian (2006): Public Engagement as a Means of Restoring Public Trust in Science--Hitting the Notes, but Missing the Music? In: Community Genetics, 9 (3), 211–220. |
