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Communicate Science and Policy: The Making of Boundary Work in Wash Project

Author(s): Ap. Imawan; D. Prasongko

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Abstract: The climate crisis has affected urban lives, including in coastal areas. It can be seen from sea level rises that have given an impact a tidal flood in coastal areas. One of the cities in Indonesia, named Semarang, experiences tidal flooding every week. This process has implications for residents in accessing clean water, sanitation, land subsidence and also women's health, especially on reproduction. The project is called Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) WASH project is a collaborative research project between Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Indonesia and Monash University, Australia. The WASH project aims to understand the measure of local governments in utilising water and sanitation during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, this project examines to what extent women access gender-based roles, who are often seen as vulnerable groups, to access WASH in the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, this project paradigm is in line with WASH Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) framework. As an institution that produces science, universities communicate with water stakeholders to encourage water policy, especially related to hygiene (Francis & Capri, 2021). This collaboration raises questions: how do members of the WASH project negotiate science and policy boundaries with water stakeholders in Semarang? How do members of the WASH project and water stakeholders in Semarang manage the common ground about water hygiene? Most of the studies tend to analyse the level of contested knowledge between scientific and indigenous knowledge (IK) (Lejano & Ingram, 2009; Maclean & Inc, 2015) or to find boundary objects in science and policy interaction (Star & Grisemer, 1989; Goksu, 2014). On different scales of analysis, several studies tend to focus on the role of organisation which acts as an intermediary agency to solve the boundaries between science and policy (Guston, 2001; Miller, 2001; Guston, 1999). This study analyses a different context by looking up the construction of interaction between science and policy in the water project, especially the WASH project. We proposed a different perception if communication between them is socially constructed, not taken for granted. We use the concept of boundary work from Halffman (2003) which explains that boundaries are 'created' and 'interacted' through three mediums, namely, text, object and person (wellknown as TOP Model). By using this framework, we argue the absence of a boundary person leads to the failure of interaction between science and policy in the WASH project. . Science, Technology, & Human Values, 26 (4), 399-408 Halffman, W. (2003). Boundaries of Regulatory Science: Eco/toxicology and Aquatic Hazards of Chemicals in the US, England and the Netherlands. Amsterdam: University of Amsterdam (diss. ). Halffman, W., & Hoppe, R. (2005). Science/Policy Boundaries: A Changing Division of Labour in Dutch Expert Policy Advice. In Democratization of Expertise? (pp. 135-151). Springer, Dordrecht. Hoppe, R., & Halffman, W. (2003). An International Comparison of Boundary Work Between Science and Policy. Maclean, K., & Inc, T. B. Y. B. (2015). Crossing Cultural Boundaries: Integrating Indigenous Water Knowledge into Water Governance through Co-research in the Queensland Wet Tropics, Australia. Geoforum, 59,142-152. Miller, C. (2001). Hybrid Management: Boundary Organizations, Science Policy, and Environmental Governance in the Climate Regime. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 26 (4), 478-500. Star, S. L., & Griesemer, J. R. (1989). Institutional Ecology, Translations' and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39. Social studies of science, 19 (3), 387-420.

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Year: 2022

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