Politics and science function differently. The Corona pandemic has made it clear that scientific facts do not make good policy. Stabilisation in times of crisis, it turns out, requires both: scientific expertise and political skill.
This knowledge formed the basis of the workshop that Bogner, sociologist at the Institute of Technology Assessment at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, organised together with his colleagues Daniela Fuchs, Tanja Sinozic and Paul Buntfuß as part of the KIRAS project EPISTEMIS on 16 February 2023. Representatives from the Ministries of Science, the Interior and Health, as well as from AGES and Gesundheit Österreich were present.
Communicating through differences
"Scientists assume that politicians want rational advice. Politicians, however, want to make decisions that don’t cause too much conflict. Both sides need to understand each other's rationalities in order to be able to communicate better," stresses Bogner. In small groups, participants also discussed how different voices can be heard in policy advice and how the diversity of views and different points of view can be used constructively: “The pandemic is not just a health problem but an interconnected crisis in which social, economic and psychological aspects must also be taken into account. Different voices should also be heard. This requires an active debate between different cultures of knowledge. Opposing views must not be allowed to stand side by side in isolation."
The EPISTEMIS project has been comparing the practice of scientific policy advice in the UK, Germany and Austria since October 2021. The results will be presented in spring 2023.
ITA project: Epistemic Security – On Scientific Expertise in Chronic Crises
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