VM+Week+4+Notes


 * 1. Research Project:**

- Brief written statement of the t opic: The role of civil society in policy-making for climate change

- Motivating questions: how deeply should the level of civil society participation goes in policy-making for climate change? Is it essential or just a plus? What are its pros and cons? How can it be implemented?

- Initial list of sources:  a. Bäckstrand, K. 2003. Civic science for sustainability: Reframing the role of experts, policy-makers and citizens in environmental governance. Global Environmental Politics 3 (3):24-41.  b. Funtowicz, S., Ravetz, J. 1993. Science for the post-normal age. Futures 25 (7):739–755. c. Wynne, B. 1996. Misunderstood misunderstandings: social identities and public uptake of science. In Irwin, A., Wynne B., (eds) Misunderstanding science? Cambridge UP. p 19-46. - Preliminary plan of direction: case study of Minas Gerais state's approach


 * 2. Introduction: Post-Normal Climate Science (Krauss, Schafer, and van Storch):**

The authors reached what they proposed in the article title, bringing to us an "easy to read" brief introduction of what is going on on climate science since it has been seen through the post-normality lens.

Their diverse background in cultural anthropology, journalism, and statistics allows them to show important specific elements of this complex subject, and moreover, reinforces this complexity.

- Climate change as normal science: war between alarmists and skeptics --> controversies (hockey-stick, gatekeeping etc.) --> lost of public trust on science (vacination issue?)

- Post-normal: Ravetz and Funtowicz (1991) “focus on the process of sciences"; 4 PNS criteria: facts are uncertain; values are in dispute; stakes are high (including local actors) and decisions are urgent. Philosopher: "opens new possibilities to think about it".

- Blogosphere: environment for extended peer review (going beyond journals)

- Workshop: "Although great differences about the cause and meaning of current climate change remained, there was NO DOUBT about the extension of the debate into the public and the role of the blogosphere, with extended informal peer review as one of its main features." Motivating questions for research on climate change? "where and how to apply it (post-normal concept) most successfully."

- Educated citizens? (page 125)

- Examples: IPCC issues in 2010. "Thruth speaks to power" <> "working deliberatively within imperfections"; the creation and management of ignorance"; regional climate service: " traditional climate service approach of mostly informing, educating, or other forms of unidirectional transmission of scientific knowledge; instead, it draws its legitimacy from the recognition of mutual exchange and dialogic communication among different forms of knowledge. In doing so, climate science acknowledges the key role of cultural values in policymaking."

- Weather and climatic cycles as "an issue of everyday life and language" (stakes are high)