Constructing a "Green" Campus: Co-Shaping of Environmental Science, Corporation, and Public Discourse at a Polytechnic University

• In Event: Corporate Influence on Science and Regulation – II

Abstract

STS research on environmental science illustrates how epistemic gaps between scientists, the public, and policymakers might be bridged. The effects of the potentially shrinking gap in this instance of environmental science and public discourse manifests itself in myriad fields. We contribute to this work, asking: what happens when formal science and common life rub against each other on a public university campus? Our research through in-person interviews with undergraduate students, rhetorical analysis of marketing strategies of corporations operating at a public polytechnic university, and national survey data on Americans’ impression of the pertinence of environmental issues examines how formal science influences and affects the public discourse around climate change and climate science. Our findings suggest that when a variety of institutions come in contact with and integrate knowledge from formal science and other less formal knowledge production sites, it is incorporated unevenly, allowing for new methods of integration at numerous points of entry. Our work and medium has been highly interdisciplinary, with contributors from the disciplines of Political Science, Communication and Media Studies, Journalism, and Art and Design.

Authors

• Paul Stephen Gillis-Smith, Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo

• Danielle Davis, Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo