ABSTRACT
The chapter sets the stage for the book and introduces the linear model of expertise or scientific knowledge as a well-spread assumption that better knowledge will directly lead to action. The chapter introduces the book’s aim to contrast the common and incorrect assumptions in environmental research and the linear model on the one hand with empirically based theories and perspectives from social science on the other, illustrated in specific cases. As a whole, the book highlights the crucial implications of seeing environmental problems as social problems – with the need to integrate institutionally based understandings of framings of climate change and of the stakeholders in relation to environmental issues.
