Between trust and distrust – Expectations and knowledge coordination in policy production and governance of climate change and biodiversity problems

Different stakeholder groups with engagement in climate change mitigation and biodiversity conservation make different conclusions about what is true and what is right, how to find out, and how to prioritise between seemingly contradictive goals and solutions. The governance system and its actors can easily be overwhelmed by conflict and contradictions.

When contested issues are discussed in formal and informal discussion forums and meetings, the words “trust” and “distrust” are commonly used.

It is crucial to better understand both what the societal actors who express concerns about trust-distrust mean, and what social processes are involved when trust and distrust are changing.

The aim of the project is therefore to unpack trust and distrust as meta-communicative concepts and to research how trust and distrust change through communication in order to suggest procedures for dealing productively with trust and distrust in governance concerning climate change and biodiversity.

The project comprises qualitative analysis of the usage of trust-distrust related words in media and social media texts; analysis of talk in interaction in governance and policy producing meetings; focus group interviews about experiences of trust and distrust; and workshops for generating a dialogic approach.

It is supported by organisations involved in natural resource governance with potentially contradictory positions, who share a desire to deal with dialogue and trust in constructive ways.