EN
The relationships among science, scientist, policy and policy-makers are extremely complex and variable. Each issues or problem; each mix of constituencies to that problem or issue; each ‘venue’, local, state, regional, national, international, lends a different character to these relationships and their processes and products. At its base, however, coastal management is a social processes. It is defined by the belief, perceptions and ‘cultures’ of its various participants. At the very heart of the issue of the interaction between science and policy is the fact that science is concerned with description and explanation, while policy is concerned with governance of human behaviour. Science is not normative, while policy is normative by definition. In this paper, we explore the different dimensions of the relationship between science and policy as a social process. The relationship among them will be better understood, and will contribute more fully to the coastal policy-making process if the characteristics, limitations and potential contributions of each are clearly recognized.