External collaboration in Environmental Communication

To handle the complexity of the environmental issues of today requires collaboration between research and practice. Being situated at SLU in an agricultural university setting allows us to engage in research questions that bridge Environmental Communication and agricultural extension and natural resource management issues. We regularly get requests from the surrounding society to educate actors and facilitate processes of change. Taking these contacts, experiences and our theoretical basis as point of departure, we formulate research questions which we investigate in close collaboration with stakeholders and other people concerned.

The most significant value of the research is the application of it to real issues. This is done through increase the awareness of citizens and stakeholders about communication behavior, and to influence the likelihood that decisions towards greater levels of sustainability will be the outcome.

Research funding comes from Swedish agencies such as Formas, Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, The Swedish Board of Agriculture, Swedish Farmers’ Foundation for Agricultural Research, Swedish Heritage Board, and Sida but also from the European Commission and international agencies such as USAID. The unit participates in international networks and collaborations reaching from Swedish, Nordic and European settings as well as countries in the global South including Nicaragua, Chile, Bolivia, Etiopia and Mozambique.