Gunilla Öberg

Gunilla Öberg has nearly thirty years of experience leading interdisciplinary research and teaching projects in the environmental field. Her current research focuses on the perception and role of expertise in chemical management, as well as on teaching STEM students about the contextual nature of science and the value of alternative forms of knowledge. She is the author of a widely used textbook, Interdisciplinary Environmental Studies – A Primer.

The project

Title: Reckoning with the ways in which molecular-based thinking is embedded in chemicals management and how it hinders effective risk evaluation.

"Jurisdictions around the world are revising their chemical management systems to better account for the complexity of chemical risks. We argue that a more holistic approach requires a fundamental transformation in how these risks are perceived, understood, and assessed. This transformation entails recognising how dominant worldviews and knowledge systems are embedded within these systems and how they may inhibit change. The aim of the project is to identify and characterise scientific perspectives relevant to chemical risk assessment, with a focus on epistemic viewpoints that are often overlooked.

We adopt a case study approach to identify and characterise the epistemic perspectives present in chemical risk assessment, drawing on Ludwik Fleck’s concept of thinking styles, Ian Hacking’s styles of reasoning, and Karin Knorr-Cetina’s epistemic cultures. An iterative and exploratory qualitative analysis of the reports produced by expert groups will be conducted. To examine the reasoning guiding the process of combining and assembling information in these documents, we will collect data on the context, engagement, and mandate of established or proposed guidelines, in order to analyse how solutions are framed and shaped by molecular thinking."

Hosting institution: Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire Sciences Innovations Sociétés (LISIS) - Université Paris-Est Créteil

Selective Bibliography

• Ataria, James; Parata, Te Kaurinui; Moores, Audrey; Iti, Huia; Hill, Christopher; Chiblow, Susan; Murphy, Michelle; Hikuroa, Daniel; McGregor, Deborah; Moggridge, Bradley; Tremblay, Louis; Oberg, Gunilla; Demers, Marc; Brooks, Bryan. (2024) Towards the sustainable management of chemicals and waste: Weaving Indigenous knowledge with green and sustainable chemistry. Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 
• Öberg, G., Eronen, E., Chiblow, S., Smiles, D. (2024). Considerations for supporting Indigenous Data Justice and Data Sovereignty in Chemical Risk Assessment. Report to the Existing Substances Risk Assessment Bureau (ESRAB), Health Canada.
• Öberg, G. and Scheringer, M. (2024), “Everyone has interests”: A red herring. Integr Environ Assess Manag. 
• Schaeffer, Andreas; Groh, Ksenia; Sigmund, Gabriel; …; Oberg, Gunilla; … (2023) Conflicts of Interest in the Assessment of Chemicals, Waste and Pollution  Environmental Science & Technology 57(48): 19066–19077
• Bronwyn McIlroy, Annegaaike Leopold and Gunilla Öberg (2021) The manufacturing of consensus: a struggle for epistemic authority in chemical risk evaluation. Environmental Science and Policy Volume 122, August 2021, Pages 25-34