Climate Science By and For Citizens

This abstract has open access
Abstract Summary
It is widely recognized that achieving sustainability in the twenty-first century will require a reorientation of scientific research towards “usable” knowledge, particularly when it comes to climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, for instance, was created to translate science into policy, but it has focused on long-term predictions of global temperature, rather than on shorter-term, regional-scale predictions that could help guide local policies. Generating actionable climate science will require incorporating the knowledge, experience, and values of those impacted by climate change into the process of producing and evaluating new research. This reorientation is already in progress—evident, for instance, in recent initiatives to incorporate the knowledge, experience, and values of “users,” “stakeholders,” and indigenous communities into the process of producing knowledge about the impacts of anthropogenic climate change. Strong claims are being made for the novelty of these modes of generating climate knowledge, but with little attention to history. In fact, the precedents for involving non-experts in scientific research date back to the very birth of professional science in the eighteenth century. This presentation considers the history of “co-production” in the earth sciences in order to identify the contingent assumptions and limitations of our own ways of doing science. I conclude that usability needs to be defined more broadly. In fact, conceptions of “useful knowledge” drawn from the past can help point the way forward.
Abstract ID :
HSS470
Submission Type
Chronological Classification :
Cultural and cross-cultural contexts, including colonialism in general

Abstracts With Same Type

Abstract ID
Abstract Title
Abstract Topic
Submission Type
Primary Author
HSS575
Aspects of Scientific Practice/Organization
Organized Session
Prof. Anna Graber
HSS355
Technology
Organized Session
Francesco Cassata
HSS587
Medicine and Health
Organized Session
Chantal Marazia
HSS872
Thematic Approaches to the Study of Science
Organized Session
Dr. Alison Kraft
HSS5847
Biology
Organized Session
Dr. Dominik Huenniger
HSS512
Aspects of Scientific Practice/Organization
Organized Session
Alrun Schmidtke
84 visits