University of California, Los Angeles, United States
Ensuring healthy and thriving socio-ecological systems necessitates that diverse knowledge sources, including but beyond dominant science, be brought to bear in environmental problem-solving. Community-based approaches to science offer great promise in this regards. However, hierarchies between scientists and broader publics - in which dominant science is positioned as a superior or elite knowledge system - can inhibit meaningful community participation in these endeavors. Drawing on evidence from two case studies of community-based science and dam removal in the Western US, this presentation will highlight the role of knowledge brokers in flattening hierarchies between scientists and communities in community-based science.
