In the 21st century of global environmental, economic, and social-cultural challenges, the highest mission of any university is the practical applicability of its research. In order to secure that environmental issues have the highest likelihood of being resolved for sustainability, understanding the dialectic relationship between human beings, society as a whole and the natural resources, including the underlying, is vital.
Being the home for around 17 researchers and PhD students, and around 30 Masters thesis students, the Unit of Environmental Communication is doing research in a wide range of Environmental Communication areas. The societal relevance of our research is very high working with the understanding of emergent processes of social change; social interactions such as democracy, social learning and conflicts concerning natural resource management; and collective actions in the context of environmental issues.
Interdisciplinarity and interaction with society
The Unit is strengthened by a mix of disciplinary backgrounds (from biology and agronomy to socio-economic planning, social-psychology, sociology and political-science) and competence that supports a strong capacity for robust, applied research. This is based on valuable interaction with society at the heart of complex environment management issues. Agriculture, wildlife, forestry, water management and climate change are some of the major Natural Resource Management (NRM) contexts in which current research is undertaken. Being situated at SLU in an agricultural university setting allows us to engage in research questions that bridge Environmental Communication and agricultural extension and environmental management issues.
The Unit of Environmental Communication participates in many international networks and collaborations, cutting across Swedish, Nordic, European settings as well as in several countries in the global South including Nicaragua, Chile, Ecuador and Ethiopia, Vietnam and Nepal.
Research funding has come mainly from Swedish agencies such as Formas, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Swedish Farmers' Foundation for Agricultural Research, and Sida but also from the European Commission and international agencies such as USAID.
The Unit has published across a wide spectrum of contexts. It has achieved respect and legitimacy of a broad range of government agencies, communities, interest groups, and colleagues. The most significant value of its research is the application of it to real issues, not only to build capacity of citizens and stakeholders in communication behaviours but also to influence the likelihood that decisions towards greater levels of sustainability will be the outcome.