Together with an international group of scholars, Dr. Susanne Koch and Prof. Nelius Boshoff have guest edited a Special Issue on inequality in science and its implications for sustainability transformations published in Environmental Science and Policy.   

Comprising fifteen contributions framed by an editorial, the Special Issue shifts the spotlight on how social and epistemic inequalities shape environmental sciences and the knowledges they generate. The research articles, reviews and perspective papers describe and problematise outcomes of unequal representation and epistemic authority in the fields they study. Several papers address the exclusion of local knowledge and non-academic actors in research on environmental topics. Others highlight how specific groups of scholars within science are marginalised, stratifying knowledge production along colonial and gender dimensions. A research article by In-Forest researchers Camilla Tetley and Susanne Koch traces how narratives of research collaboration at the global science-policy interface often foreground capacity asymmetries, thereby mediating a deficit framing that reinforces the inequality they seek to address. 

The Special Issue emerged from a workshop convened in 2022 by Susanne and Nelius as part of the Programme Point Sud with funding from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft - DFG). Held as a hybrid and multi-lingual event at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in South Africa, it brought together 29 scholars based in African, Asian, European and Latin and North American countries for an inter- and transdisciplinary exchange on evidence and experiences of inequalities in environmental sciences.

The feedback and the rich insights shared at the workshop led a group of scholars to form a guest editorial team with Susanne and Nelius and initiate the Special Issue. The call attracted a large number of submissions by scholars from across the globe. Aside from making visible different dimensions and implications of inequality in environmental research, its contributions also provide positive counter-visions for how science can be transformed into a more inclusive site of knowledge-making.

Link to Special Issue on journal webpage:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/special-issue/102XQM6RSQ9

Full reference of the Special Issue Editorial:
Koch, S., Ludwig, D., Boshoff, N., Boakye-Danquah, J., & Mbiah, A. F. T. (2024). Science as a site of inequality. Environmental Science & Policy, 103917. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103917

Special Issue research article related to In-Forest:
Tetley, C., & Koch, S. (2024). Narratives of research collaboration for sustainability at the global science-policy interface: A vehicle for inequality or transformation? Environmental Science & Policy, 155(103708), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2024.103708

Please note: If you cannot access the editorial or any other paper of interest included in the Special Issue, please do not hesitate to get in touch ([email protected])