ABSTRACT

This chapter addresses the specific challenges faced by scientists willing to contribute to a process of integrated assessment. Integrated assessment, when applied to the issue of sustainability, has to be associated with a multi-criteria analysis (MCA) of performance, which, by definition, is controversial. This in turn requires (1) a preliminary institutional and conflict analysis (to define what are the relevant social actors and agents whose perceptions and values should be considered in the analysis, and what are the power relations among them); (2) the development of appropriate procedures able to be involved in the discussion about indicators, options and scenarios on the largest number of relevant social actors; and (3) the development of fair and effective mechanisms of decision making. The continuous switching of causes and effects among the activities related to both the descriptive and normative dimensions makes this discussion extremely delicate. Scientists describe what is considered relevant by social actors, and social actors consider relevant what is described by scientists. The two decisions — (1) who are the social actors included in this process and (2) what should be considered relevant when facing legitimate but contrasting views among the social actors — are key issues that have to be seriously considered by the scientists in charge of generating the descriptions used for the integrated assessment. This is why, in this chapter, I decided to provide an overview of terms and problems related to this relatively new field.