The scope of mission-orientation in Dutch fresh-water ecology

Abstract

In response to growing concern about environmental problems ecologists have engaged in a variety of ‘mission-oriented” efforts in which they claim to have taken into account the objective of helping to solve environmental problems in their research strategies or research programmes. The significance of these efforts is evaluated here in terms of both the theoretical development of the field of ecology and its orientation towards social objectives. Three examples of mission-orientation are analyzed on the basis of a case-study of Dutch fresh-water ecology; (1) ecosystems research within the framework of the International Biological Programme; (2) landscape ecology, and (3) ecological research on the management of fresh-water resources. These examples demonstrate that in principle the scope of missionorientation in ecology can be broad. In Dutch fresh-water ecology, however, two specific approaches have become particularly institutionalized. The ecologists tended to opt either for theory-centered approaches close to the type of research carried out by ecologists developing the field regardless of any societal mission or for problem-centered approaches without much emphasis on theory development. Types of mission-orientation which can be placed between these extremes have been established only to a limited extent in Dutch fresh-water ecology.