Perspectives on Liberating and Deliberating Knowledge in Science

Knowledge co-production has received increasing attention in environmental and sustainability sciences. The emphasis has been on the principles and outcomes of integrating knowledge. The process of co-production, what we refer to as deliberative science, has received far less scrutiny. Environmental social science holds promise in documenting and assessing the practice of knowledge co-production or deliberation through inclusive, participatory, and community-based methodologies. In deliberative science, like deliberative democracy, knowledge and knowledge holders must first be liberated, so that knowledge can be meaningfully deliberated. The tenets of deliberative democracy and normative practices of civic participation in decision-making are well-suited to science deliberation: open and inclusive discussions that are informed, balanced, conscientious, substantive, and comprehensive. In this paper, we provide an overview of what deliberative science is (and is not) and the lessons we have learned in engaging in deliberative science together across ways of knowing.