The Logic of Measuring, Managing and Governing Eco Systems (EcoLogic)

Gisle Andersen holds a Ph.D. in sociology (2016) from the University of Bergen. He is a Researcher II at the NORCE research institute where he leads several social science research projects on various environmental policy issues. Key themes include attitudes toward environmental and climate policy measures based on surveys, how language used to describe nature has evolved over time, and historical-sociological studies of the interaction between expert knowledge, regulation, and decisions in the environmental field. The visit is part of the Wicked-Waters project, led by Associate Professor Ignacio Herrera-Anchustegui and funded by the Research Council of Norway.

During the seminar, Gisle presented the project "The logic of measuring, managing, and governing ecosystems (EcoLogic)." In addition to him, the team includes Simon Neby (UiB), Christien van der Horst (UiB), Hogne Sataøen (Örebro University), and Monika Berg (Örebro University). The project is funded by NFR-FRIPRO.

In the project, Gisle and the rest of the team explore the fundamental principles of weighing various considerations in environmental policy. For example, how is acceptable and unacceptable destruction of nature defined? Over the past few decades, the answers to such questions have changed significantly. Environmental policy has increasingly become focused on safeguarding the entire natural system, often formulated as a more ecosystem-based environmental policy. This "ecological turn" has been important for legitimizing decisions, but it is unclear how it affects the content of environmental policy. EcoLogic investigates how this shift is reflected in political, scientific, and regulatory processes. The goal is to gain a better understanding of how these processes contribute to shaping environmental policy and attempts to control the impact on ecosystems.

Thank you very much for an interesting seminar, Gisle!