Across the environmental turn in the social sciences, many compelling arguments have been put forward on the need to understand and act on planetary crises in ways that connect social, institutional and biophysical matters. In the science/policy world of organised expert advice to governments and trans-governmental agencies, the case for such integrative approaches to sustainability is hardly new. Yet, translating aspirations for integration into an ethos of practice remains a struggle. Examples abound of the re-appearance of distinct social, economic and environmental dimensions, defeating efforts to keep considerations of equity, power or systemic change at the heart of how we approach our planet in crisis. In this talk, I draw on research in science and technology studies (STS) on what makes for ‘good’ expertise to reflect on this challenge. I investigate the case of the ‘value chain’ approach developed by the United Nations International Resource Panel (IRP), putting it in conversation with recent efforts in the academic literature to bridge the languages of the biophysical and the social.

Sujatha Raman is Professor at the Centre for Public Awareness of Science (CPAS), ANU. She leads the UNESCO Chair in Science Communication for the Public Good. Raman is interested in the forms of expertise needed to respond to planetary crises in the context of diversity in how we know, value and order things.