2015/03/31 by Elizabeth Hall, Todd Sanders · 1 citation
Social Sciences · Environmental Science · #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Sustainability and Climate Change Governance #Climate Change and Geoengineering
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/1467-9655.12162
openalex publication_date 2015/03/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Calls for accountability and ‘impactful’ research are fundamentally reshaping the academy, giving rise to a large, critical scholarship on neoliberal regimes of accountability and their pernicious effects. But these calls also animate other institutional forms and practices that have received less critical attention. These include new forms of science that promise accountability through interdisciplinarity, collaborating with stakeholders, and addressing real‐world problems. This article considers one example of such accountable science: human dimensions of climate change field research. This research endeavour has produced surprising results, including the uncritical adoption of controversial Euro‐American ideas about traditional Others. In exploring how this has come about, the article considers how theoretical and disciplinary diversity are managed within this arena, and the organizing logics that enable climate sciences and scientists to work together. We ultimately argue that accountable science – like other neoliberal modes of accountability – can produce outcomes for which no one can be held to account.