Is Evidence‐Based Policymaking an Environmental Studies Agenda? An Interpretive Review

ABSTRACT Studies of knowledge development and use for public decision‐making can be found across the social sciences. There have been increasing calls for meaningful integration of the contrasting disciplinary perspectives on this topic, including from environmental and sustainability sciences. This paper provides a preliminary investigation of the feasibility of such an agenda by examining environmental studies of knowledge development and use, using an analytical framework derived from the policy sciences of evidence‐based policymaking. These two literatures have progressed in parallel for several decades, with just a subset of scholars working at their interface. The paper presents an interpretive systematic review of environmental studies to assess its conceptual coherence with the policy sciences. The literature survey indicates a schism between contrasting epistemologies, much like in policy sciences. Yet, most literature, regardless of epistemological orientation, demonstrates an appreciation of the complexities and contingencies of knowledge use for policymaking in ways that align well with interpretivist policy sciences. Environmental literatures are, however, pre‐occupied by science‐policy interfaces as the central locus of knowledge development and use, contrary to policy sciences' understanding of contemporary policy advisory systems. The surveyed literature also neglects performative uses of evidence and how contrasting rationalities may be used when deploying evidence in policy formulation. We propose that a common conceptual framework between these subdisciplines is possible but needs to better account for the politics of knowledge development and rational choice in policymaking.