Mistra Environmental Communication, a four-year research programme, seeks to develop communication in the area of environmental sustainability from often being a matter of one-way communication these days to becoming a real dialogue among various parties, even when they have divergent opinions and interests.
What is the challenge?
We are facing serious global challenges in terms of ecological, social and economic sustainability. Our perceptions of these problems are increasingly polarised. One reason for this is that not all the citizens and stakeholders who should be involved in the discussion about society’s future are on board. Information and dissemination of knowledge are often one-way only. One challenge is therefore to create workable communication among all the different parties in which everyone, regardless of opinion, can join in the creation of meaning. Only when this is achieved can communication about our global challenges become meaningful, with genuine content.
Environmental communication is not about researchers getting their messages out more easily, but about creating multidirectional communication that takes conflict and power aspects seriously.
How will the programme contribute to a solution?
The programme has an interdisciplinary approach whereby researchers from a range of scientific disciplines collaborate with non-academic partners to both create new knowledge and find practical solutions. Through interaction among the partners involved, the programme aims to develop knowledge that can then be translated into new communication practices.
The breadth of the programme boosts prospects of new practices being developed. By the time the programme is completed, it should have contributed to research in several areas, but also to practice and policy.
The programme sees environmental communication as a research field in its own right, albeit one that is integrated into both communication science and other forms of socially oriented environmental and sustainability research. Through in-depth interdisciplinary knowledge, environmental communication can become an effective tool in the transition to sustainability.
Who will benefit from the results?
Real communication in multiple directions would help citizens, decision-makers and various kinds of stakeholders in society to cooperate and understand one another better. In the next step, this will help to make social development more sustainable. In this perspective, communication is a key tool. It is therefore hoped that all the Mistra programmes will be able to benefit from the results in terms both of approaches to co-creation of knowledge and practice, and to communication in theory and practice.
The programme is a collaboration involving six universities (the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, SLU; Uppsala University; Lund University; the University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) in Australia; the University of Texas at Austin in the US; and Charles University in the Czech Republic. Also involved are stakeholders from various sectors of society, including the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, the Swedish Forest Agency, the Federation of Swedish Farmers (LRF), Greenpeace and other government agencies, NGOs and companies.
The importance of research for a green recovery and sustainable transformation – Interviews with Mistra Programme Directors spring 2020.
Anke Fischer and Eva Friman, Programme Directors Mistra Environmental Communication.