Ms. Elizabeth McNie :: Sustainability Science Program :: Center for International Development

Sustainability Science Program

Ms. Elizabeth McNie
Center for International Development
Kennedy School of Government
Harvard University
502A Rubenstein Building
79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
USA
Tel: (1) 617-496-0739
Fax: (1) 617-496-8753
Email: elizabeth_mcnie "at" ksg.harvard.edu
Group affiliation: Doctoral Fellow

Elizabeth McNie is a Doctoral Fellow in the Sustainability Science Program at Harvard’s Center for International Development and a doctoral candidate in the Environmental Studies Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder where she was a research assistant at the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research. McNie explores how to improve the utility of scientific informationin decision making and the institutional design, organizational dynamics,and social capital needed for forging effective linkages between scientists and decision makers. Her doctoral research explores how scientists and policy makers jointly produce useful short-term climate information in a variety of natural resource and public health arenas. This research focuses on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Regional Integrated Sciences and Assessments (RISA) Program. McNie was a fellow with the NSF Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship Program (IGERT) from 2002-2005, and was the co-recipient of an NSF International Supplemental Research Grant that focused on paleo-climate research and climate policy in Iceland. She has an MA in Psychology/Organization Development from Sonoma State University and a BS and minor in Marine Transportation and Engineering from the California Maritime Academy. She is also a U.S. Merchant Marine Officer.

The Role of Boundary Organizationsin Integrating Knowledge and Action in Sustainable Development: Lessons from Agroforestry Research in Indonesia. Scientists, farmers and politicians live in different worlds, characterized by different values, different priorities and different ways of knowing the world. The barriers between these groups often make it difficult to link knowledge and action in order to expand alternatives and improve decision outcomes. On the other hand, barriers between both science and society are beneficial in that science avoids becoming politicized and policy avoids becoming ‘scientized’. The challenge thereforeis to manage the boundary between science and society in such a way that the knowledge produced is relevant to users while simultaneously maintaining the credibility and legitimacy of science. Boundary organizations facilitate this process through boundary work and the construction ofboundary objects. While well articulated in US and EU contexts, little is known about the relevance of these institutions in linking knowledge and action for sustainable development. This research explores these challenges and expands upon current boundary organization theory in the context of the Rewarding Upland Poor for Environmental Services (RUPES) projects developed and implemented by the World AgroforestryCentre – ICRAF in Indonesia.