Trusting climate science: How is the environmental youth movement’s relation to climate science to be understood?
Engagement in environmental youth movements is rising in popularity, with a common slogan being to “listen to the science”. What does this statement say about these movements’ practices of truth-accepting, and what effects does this notion have on the construction of social order?
Trust plays a vital role in the acceptance of what knowledge is true and not, as well as the relation one has to science. Karin Gustafsson discusses this in an article about the public’s relation to science and acceptance of truthful knowledge, and how this shapes the social order. She discusses two different types of knowledge production. One where the scientific scene of universities is seen as the producer of objective knowledge. The other where knowledge springs from both universities as well as non-academic institutions, and where science is seen as a part of society rather than separate. The dominating way that the public relates to knowledge production is dynamically changing over time, and with that the trust in science. The article also explores how trust in science can be conceptualized as a truth-seeking practice taking four different forms – (1) as assessing the trustworthiness of the claims themselves, as well as (2) the trustworthiness of the knowledge practices and (3) the socio-epistemic positions from which these claims come from, or (4) as acceptance of truth due to a lack of space for discussion.
Based on the exploration of these concepts, Gustafsson proposes a theoretical framework from which this can be analysed further, and used in future studies to gain a deeper understanding of the environmental youth movements’ relation to climate science. This would allow for a further analysis of what practices of acceptance that lies under statements such as “listen to the science”. Additionally, it would offer insight into how the movements’ view of science as the teller of truth and their self-proclaimed role as the voice of this effects the shaping of the social order.
Gustafsson, K. M. (2025). Trusting climate science: The process of accepting what is true about the climate crisis and simultaneously creating social order. Nature and Culture, 20(3), 177-200. https://doi.org/10.3167/nc.2025.200301