The connection between (social science) knowledge and policy
has been a longstanding debate in public policy (see e.g. Lynn,
1978). Sustainability indicators are at the same time a means to
compile and structure knowledge and to express societal and
political norms and priorities. While this dual role has been
recognized by many scholars writing on the subject, it is less clear
in how far this dual role has been recognized in the design and
implementation of sustainability indicator development processes.
The cases studied suggest that the socio-political dimension
needs as much recognition and consideration in the design
and implementation of a sustainability indicator development
process as the knowledge or substance dimension. This seems not
to be fully recognized yet. Secondly, science-led initiatives do also
‘‘vote’’ on the inclusion and exclusion of indictors or related subclasses;
this voting procedure is not scientific in a positivist sense,
but can be characterised as ‘political’. Thirdly, while in political
processes most actors are representatives of democratically
elected politicians, participation in science-led process is mostly
restricted to ‘‘invited’’ experts (in their fields) and some policymakers
that are recognized experts in relevant issue areas and may
thus not be representative