Scientific policy advice is a special, hybrid type of scientific activity: science in its advisory function faces the conflict of having to present content in a scientifically credible, unbiased, and value-free form and, at the same time, to prepare it in a politically effective way, i.e., in a way that guides action and is publicly comprehensible. The resulting texts are therefore particularly interesting for approaching scientific research practices with regard to the question of how the struggle for epistemic quality and social legitimacy is reflected in their language and content in the (co-)construction of knowledge. Using exemplary cases, a current interdisciplinary DFG project investigates the practice of scientific policy advice in Germany in terms of form, content, and function from a linguistic and epistemological perspective.
Scientific policy advice provides a special framework for processing scientific uncertainties. Socio-political decisions often require a reliable scientific basis that can be used as orientation and legitimation for political decisions. On the one hand, policy advice takes place institutionalized (e. g. by the Office of Technology Assessment at the German Bundestag [TAB] and the National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina), but also in public media discourse, when scientists give interviews or inform about scientific topics in talk shows. The need for advice concerns future actions and is thus closely linked to uncertain knowledge and the providing of forecasts, i. e. a look into the future. In this article, we focus on the practices of consulting and forecasting in the context of policy advice and capture them in their differentiations as well as show what role uncertain knowledge plays in their argumentation. In addition, we analyze to what extent the formulation of prognoses and advice is influenced by the genre and media context of the statement (expert opinion vs. interview / talk show, i. e. also: written and oral contexts).
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