The New Role of Soil Science in a Network Society

Many soil scientists feel that their expertise is not being used sufficiently when politicians, interdisciplinary research teams, and various other stakeholders address modern environmental and land-use issues. However, taking a proactive rather than a reactive approach and developing and presenting their expertise in a more productive manner would be a more effective response. This requires innovative approaches. To cope better with conditions in our modern network society, soil scientists must learn to listen to and to communicate with their stakeholders, but, more importantly, they must also learn to present their expertise in a flexible manner and, from the beginning, become thoroughly engaged in settings of joint learning and negotiation.