Abstract
Global environmental change is caused by the interaction of two extremely complex systems. One is the biosphere, the other human society and economy. Neither is modellable nor manageable because both operate intricately and chaotically, and from time to time catastrophically. Civic science is negotiated science where future states are envisaged through open structures of learning, consensus‐seeking and bargaining. This suggests that interdisciplinary science is more than the fusion of disciplines. It is the transformation of science into democratic structures through which fairer decisions can be made. Geographers should be singularly capable of adopting civic science, but they cannot do so on their own.

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