Zora Kovacic

I am a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT), University of Bergen. I work on the challenges of uncertainty and complexity that emerge when scientific knowledge is used in policy-making.

My work builds on the interdisciplinary subfield of post-normal science. According to post-normal science, decision-making processes are confronted with situations in which “facts are uncertain” because of incomplete knowledge and the complexity of the social-ecological systems to be governed, “values are in dispute” because public policy addresses heterogeneous societies, “stakes are high” because decisions on matters such as health care and sustainability have high impacts, and “decisions are urgent” because policy-making is better understood as process of crisis management, rather than a rational decision-making process. In my research, I analyse and theorise how quantitative evidence and uncertainty are mobilised in environmental and development policies.