Atmospheric Composition Change Research: Time to go Post-normal?

For more than two decades a number of frameworks for scientific knowledge production are being proposed by science and technology researchers. They all advocate an extended involvement of non-specialists, in particular when it comes to knowledge production applicable to practical societal problems. We look to what extent these new frameworks have taken ground within a particular research community: the ACCENT Network of Excellence which coordinates European atmospheric chemistry and physics research applicable to air pollution and climate change. We did so by stimulating a debate through a ?blog?, a survey and interviews with ACCENT scientists about the interaction between science, policy making and civil society. About 10% of scientists in the network contributed to the debate in writing or talking. Most of them had interactions with either policy makers or the general public in the past, and they somehow believe that trans-disciplinary interactions are needed. While such interactions give personal insights and satisfaction, they seem to have only little impact on the goals and the mode of the scientific work itself. That work and its evaluation is still largely determined by a Kuhnian paradigm nurtured and institutionalized by the project, hence by the scientific community itself and without involvement of non-scientists. Trans-disciplinary thinking that is present at the level of individual scientists still needs to find its way to the level of scientific project management. We discuss the justifications and barriers, as well as recommendations to implement a higher degree of trans-disciplinarity in applied science projects such as ACCENT.

Authors:

MARTINHO GUIMARAES PIRES PEREIRA Angela, RAES Frank, DE SOUSA BRILHANTE PEDROSA Tiago, ROSA Paulo, BRODERSEN S?sser, JOERGENSEN Michael, FERREIRA Francisco, QUEROL Xavier, REA John

Publisher:

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

Format medium:

Printed