ABSTRACT
In relation to environmental problems, this chapter shows that a science-based approach pushes forward the need for either technocratic regulation, or neoliberal policies that advocate the need to adapt to forces of nature by bolstering societal 'resilience'. Latour is usually taken to be at the forefront of efforts to unravel the objectivity of scientific knowledge and to highlight its historical contingency. The chapter focuses on how certain political struggles are rendered invisible by the environmental approach. Much of the 'politics of catastrophe' literature is linked to Foucault's notion of biopolitics. Many biopolitics scholars trace this neoliberal logic back to new developments in science, particularly complexity and network science. The chapter explores some of the implications of this approach for the struggles of knowledge that can be found in environmental movements, based on the example of the debates about the benefits and ills of genetically modified organisms (GMOs).
