Creating usable science: Opportunities and constraints for climate knowledge use and their implications for science policy
01 May 2011-Global Environmental Change-human and Policy Dimensions (Pergamon)-Vol. 21, Iss: 2, pp 680-689
TL;DR: It is found that climate science usability is a function both of the context of potential use and of the process of scientific knowledge production itself, and that iterativity is the result of the action of specific actors and organizations who ‘own’ the task of building the conditions and mechanisms fostering its creation.
Abstract: In the past several decades, decision makers in the United States have increasingly called upon publicly funded science to provide “usable” information for policy making, whether in the case of acid rain, famine prevention or climate change policy. As demands for usability become more prevalent for publicly accountable scientific programs, there is a need to better understand opportunities and constraints to science use in order to inform policy design and implementation. Motivated by recent critique of the decision support function of the US Global Change Research Program, this paper seeks to address this issue by specifically examining the production and use of climate science. It reviews empirical evidence from the rich scholarship focused on climate science use, particularly seasonal climate forecasts, to identify factors that constrain or foster usability. It finds, first, that climate science usability is a function both of the context of potential use and of the process of scientific knowledge production itself. Second, nearly every case of successful use of climate knowledge involved some kind of iteration between knowledge producers and users. The paper argues that, rather than an automatic outcome of the call for the production of usable science, iterativity is the result of the action of specific actors and organizations who ‘own’ the task of building the conditions and mechanisms fostering its creation. Several different types of institutional arrangements can accomplish this task, depending on the needs and resources available. While not all of the factors that enhance usability of science for decision making are within the realm of the scientific enterprise itself, many do offer opportunities for improvement. Science policy mechanisms such as the level of flexibility afforded to research projects and the metrics used to evaluate the outcomes of research investment can be critical to providing the necessary foundation for iterativity and production of usable science to occur.
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01 Jan 2014
TL;DR: The questions for this chapter are how far climate and its change affect current food production systems and food security and the extent to which they will do so in the future.
Abstract: Many definitions of food security exist, and these have been the subject of much debate. As early as 1992, Maxwell and Smith (1992) reviewed more than 180 items discussing concepts and definitions, and more definitions have been formulated since (DEFRA, 2006). Whereas many earlier definitions centered on food production, more recent definitions highlight access to food, in keeping with the 1996 World Food Summit definition (FAO, 1996) that food security is met when “all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” Worldwide attention on food access was given impetus by the food “price spike” in 2007–2008, triggered by a complex set of long- and short-term factors (FAO, 2009b; von Braun and Torero, 2009). FAO concluded, “provisional estimates show that, in 2007, 75 million more people were added to the total number of undernourished relative to 2003–05” (FAO, 2008); this is arguably a low-end estimate (Headey and Fan, 2010). More than enough food is currently produced per capita to feed the global population, yet about 870 million people remained hungry in the period from 2010 to 2012 (FAO et al., 2012). The questions for this chapter are how far climate and its change affect current food production systems and food security and the extent to which they will do so in the future (Figure 7-1).
960 citations
Cites background from "Creating usable science: Opportunit..."
...Food Security and Food Production Systems Chapter 7 7 owing to increased climate extremes, water limitations, and various institutional barriers (Alcamo et al., 2007; Bindi and Olesen, 2011; Dronin and Kirilenko, 2011; Kulshreshtha, 2011; Kvalvik et al., 2011; Tchebakova et al., 2011)....
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TL;DR: A conceptual model of the path between usefulness and usability is presented and an attempt is made to understand how potentially useful information becomes used (or usable) in practice.
Abstract: This Review focuses on how policymakers and others deal with scientific information about the climate, with the aim of understanding how potentially useful information becomes used (or usable) in practice. A conceptual model of the path between usefulness and usability is presented.
675 citations
Stockholm Resilience Centre1, University of Tasmania2, Australian National University3, Stockholm University4, Charles Darwin University5, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources6, University of Montana7, National Autonomous University of Mexico8, The Pew Charitable Trusts9, McGill University10, Stellenbosch University11, University of Maryland, College Park12, University of Bern13, International Center for Tropical Agriculture14, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation15, University of Wisconsin-Madison16, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences17, Hobart Corporation18, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research19, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile20, University of Sussex21, University College Cork22, Lüneburg University23, University of Arizona24, Azim Premji University25, University of the Witwatersrand26, Radboud University Nijmegen27, Utrecht University28
TL;DR: In this article, the authors propose a set of four general principles that underlie high-quality knowledge co-production for sustainability research, and offer practical guidance on how to engage in meaningful co-productive practices, and how to evaluate their quality and success.
Abstract: Research practice, funding agencies and global science organizations suggest that research aimed at addressing sustainability challenges is most effective when ‘co-produced’ by academics and non-academics. Co-production promises to address the complex nature of contemporary sustainability challenges better than more traditional scientific approaches. But definitions of knowledge co-production are diverse and often contradictory. We propose a set of four general principles that underlie high-quality knowledge co-production for sustainability research. Using these principles, we offer practical guidance on how to engage in meaningful co-productive practices, and how to evaluate their quality and success.
607 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a three-phase process is introduced to enable these "five Ws" to be negotiated collectively and to engender critical reflection on the politics of urban resilience as plans, initiatives, and projects are conceived, discussed, and implemented.
Abstract: In academic and policy discourse, the concept of urban resilience is proliferating. Social theorists, especially human geographers, have rightfully criticized that the underlying politics of resilience have been ignored and stress the importance of asking “resilience of what, to what, and for whom?” This paper calls for careful consideration of not just resilience for whom and what, but also where, when, and why. A three-phase process is introduced to enable these “five Ws” to be negotiated collectively and to engender critical reflection on the politics of urban resilience as plans, initiatives, and projects are conceived, discussed, and implemented. Deployed through the hypothetical case of green infrastructure in Los Angeles, the paper concludes by illustrating how resilience planning trade-offs and decisions affect outcomes over space and time, often with significant implications for equity.
433 citations
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The existential search for meaning of things has been studied extensively in the literature and philosophy literature as discussed by the authors, with the focus on the problem of knowledge and reality, and the way in which contemporary man is clutching at straws in his search for meanings is symptomatic both of the depth of his concern and of the inadequacy of the answers which are emerging.
Abstract: insistent quest for the meaning of things. The question is one that faces "everyman" from the child's first awareness of the mystery of life to the adult's apprehension of the mystery of death. As one existential writer put it, "I know only two things?one, that I will be dead someday, two, that I am not dead now. The only question is what shall I do be tween those two points." Does nihilistic literature and philosophy have the answer?wallowing in nothingness? Are the Madison Avenue thought controllers right in their claim that the time for the individual has passed and that we should conform to collectivities because there is safety in numbers? Shall we follow the "beat generation" and the "angry young men" who say we should conform to non-conformity in the name of pure rebelliousness and non-constructive creativity? Or should we just capitu late with the "positive thinkers" who say that all this concern about what things mean is too nerve-wracking, and that the problems of life can best be met by taking existential tranquilizers in the form of sugar coated mottos? The way in which contemporary man is clutching at straws in his search for meaning is symptomatic both of the depth of his concern and of the inadequacy of the answers which are emerging. In the material which follows, I will develop this theme primarily by elaboration of relevant material on the problems of reality and value, and the psy chology of perception and personality. Since the search for meaning ultimately implies an effort to arrive at something irreducible, it seems reasonable to open the inquiry with the question of knowledge and reality.
421 citations
References
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11,070 citations
Book•
01 Jan 2007
9,884 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the amplitude and phase of the Arm harmonic fitted to the 24-month composite values are plotted in the form of a vector for each station, which reveals both the regions of spatially coherent ENSO-related precipitation and the phase of this signal in relation to the evolution of the composite episode.
Abstract: We investigate the “typical” global and large-scale regional precipitation patterns that are associated with the El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). Monthly precipitation time series from over 1700 stations are analyzed using an empirical method designed to identify regions of the globe that have precipitation variations associated with ENSO. Monthly mean ranked precipitation composites are computed over idealized 2-year ENSO episodes for all stations that include data for at least five ENSOs. The amplitude and phase of the Arm harmonic fitted to the 24-month composite values are plotted in the form of a vector for each station. When plotted on a global map, these vectors reveal both the regions of spatially coherent ENSO-related precipitation and the phase of this signal in relation to the evolution of the composite episode. Time cries of precipitation for the coherent regions identified in the harmonic vector map are examined to determine the magnitudes of the ENSO-related precipitation and th...
3,608 citations
"Creating usable science: Opportunit..." refers background in this paper
...In the past twenty years, great advances in the ability to predict El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events up to a year ahead of time led to growing expectations that these forecasts would be useful and usable for decision making in a number of climate-sensitive sectors (Glantz, 1996; Ropelewski and Lyon, 2003; Zebiak and Cane, 1987; Agrawala et al., 2001; Ropelewski and Halpert, 1987)....
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...…(ENSO) events up to a year ahead of time led to growing expectations that these forecasts would be useful and usable for decision making in a number of climate-sensitive sectors (Glantz, 1996; Ropelewski and Lyon, 2003; Zebiak and Cane, 1987; Agrawala et al., 2001; Ropelewski and Halpert, 1987)....
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TL;DR: This study suggests that efforts to mobilize S&T for sustainability are more likely to be effective when they manage boundaries between knowledge and action in ways that simultaneously enhance the salience, credibility, and legitimacy of the information they produce.
Abstract: The challenge of meeting human development needs while protecting the earth's life support systems confronts scientists, technologists, policy makers, and communities from local to global levels. Many believe that science and technology (S&T) must play a more central role in sustainable development, yet little systematic scholarship exists on how to create institutions that effectively harness S&T for sustainability. This study suggests that efforts to mobilize S&T for sustainability are more likely to be effective when they manage boundaries between knowledge and action in ways that simultaneously enhance the salience, credibility, and legitimacy of the information they produce. Effective systems apply a variety of institutional mechanisms that facilitate communication, translation and mediation across boundaries.
2,934 citations
Book•
01 Aug 1997
TL;DR: Stokes as mentioned in this paper argues that the relationship between government and the scientific community can only be restored when we understand what is wrong with the dichotomy between basic and applied science, and he recasts the widely accepted view of the tension between understanding and use, citing as a model case the fundamental yet use-inspired studies by which Louis Pasteur laid the foundations of microbiology.
Abstract: Over fifty years ago, Vannevar Bush released his enormously influential report, Science, the Endless Frontier, which asserted a dichotomy between basic and applied science. This view was at the core of the compact between government and science that led to the golden age of scientific research after World War II a compact that is currently under severe stress. In this book, Donald Stokes challenges Bush's view and maintains that we can only rebuild the relationship between government and the scientific community when we understand what is wrong with that view. Stokes begins with an analysis of the goals of understanding and use in scientific research. He recasts the widely accepted view of the tension between understanding and use, citing as a model case the fundamental yet use-inspired studies by which Louis Pasteur laid the foundations of microbiology a century ago. Pasteur worked in the era of the ""second industrial revolution,"" when the relationship between basic science and technological change assumed its modern form. Over subsequent decades, technology has been increasingly science-based. But science has been increasingly technology-based--with the choice of problems and the conduct of research often inspired by societal needs. An example is the work of the quantum-effects physicists who are probing the phenomena revealed by the miniaturization of semiconductors from the time of the transistor's discovery after World War II. On this revised, interactive view of science and technology, Stokes builds a convincing case that by recognizing the importance of use-inspired basic research we can frame a new compact between science and government. His conclusions have major implications for both the scientific and policy communities and will be of great interest to those in the broader public who are troubled by the current role of basic science in American democracy.
2,007 citations