Bye, bye bees? On the functional use of scientific non-knowledge vs. knowledge in the discourse on pesticides

• Applicant: Professorin Dr. Nina Janich
• Subject Area: General and Comparative Linguistics, Experimental Linguistics, Typology, Non-European Languages
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 389692661

The topic of non-knowledge or uncertain knowledge has been the object of intense research efforts in sociology, philosophy and psychology for some years now. Surprisingly, however, it generally continues to be nearly a blind spot in linguistics research. The proposed project seeks to remedy this situation by building further upon the insights gained from a previous project, funded as part of the project: "Science and the Public, on the linguistic expression of scientific non-knowledge in journalistic texts and texts aimed at non-scientists"; the analysis will make use primarily of the tools of discourse linguistics. The previous project demonstrated the linguistics instruments of non-knowledge communication and that systematic and stylistic textual analyses are not sufficient when it comes to adequately understanding the discursive significance of non-knowledge, i.e. the ways it can be functionalized to serve certain purposes in public communication.Taking as an example the current, hotly contested, debate about the ban on neonicotinoids to protect wild bees and honey bees, the proposed project will 1. extend and further differentiate the spectrum of actors, taking account of scientific, political, business and civil society groups. In an age of online availability of discursive positions, this needs to be done by 2. drawing on the original texts produced by these actors rather than, as is usual in most discourse linguistics studies on controversial societal issues, only by analysing journalistic and mass media texts. The proven context sensitivity of language referring to non-knowledge makes it sensible to 3. take greater account of the specific discourse chronology and thus also of intertextual contexts and developments. Finally, 4. there has to date been no specifically pragmalinguistic analysis of the functions of references to non-knowledge in context nor any reconstruction of the resulting functionalizations of non-knowledge, particularly in the contested area between scientific predictions and political recommendations for action. The project thus promises to deliver insights from discourse linguistics to add to existing textual stylistics knowledge regarding the communication of scientific non-knowledge and to extend discourse linguistics by focusing on non-knowledge. Additionally, it offers a useful contribution to the social scientific debate on the societal significance of scientific non-knowledge by providing a specific linguistics perspective, while also offering nature conservation biology new ways of reflecting on scientific non-knowledge in communication aimed outside the scientific community.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Nico Blüthgen