By Gabriele Bammer
How can an understanding of diversity in power improve research on complex societal and environmental problems? What are the different ways in which diversity in power plays out?
Simply put, there are currently two common ways in which power is taken into account in research on complex societal and environmental problems:
- those working with marginalised stakeholders, or otherwise committed to giving everyone involved in the research an equal voice, often seek to eliminate differences in power
- those who seek to use their research to change policy or practice generally attempt to find ways to influence those with the power to make those changes.