Extended Peer Communities

Extended Peer Communities: Appraising the contributions of tacit knowledges in climate change decision-making

Meisch, Simon P. (University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research; Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen)
Bremer, Scott (University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research)
Young, M.T. (TU Delft Ethics & Philosophy of Technology)
Funtowicz, Silvio O. (University of Bergen and Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research)

2022

This paper explores the implications of assessing tacit knowledges of climatic change in extended peer communities, as applied in two European research projects on climate action. Post-normal science (PNS) proposes the extension of the peer community to co-produce better quality knowledge for decision-making on issues like climate change, where facts are uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent. The paper has two aims. The first, more practical, is to explore methods for critically appraising tacit knowledges for climate action, using the example of two ongoing research projects. The second, more conceptual, is to improve practices and discourses surrounding tacit knowledge in current PNS praxis, with close consideration to the implications and challenges involved in including these forms of knowledge in decision making processes. By exploring theoretical perspectives on the topic of tacit knowledge, four challenges facing extended peer communities in engaging with tacit forms of knowledge have been identified: communication, representation, appropriation, and assessment.

Climate action
Extended peer community
Post-normal science
Quality appraisal
Tacit knowledge

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:c24e2a5d-5de2-4347-b289-766b9be72537

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2021.102868

0016-3287

Futures: the journal of policy, planning and futures studies, 135

Institutional Repository

journal article

© 2022 Simon P. Meisch, Scott Bremer, M.T. Young, Silvio O. Funtowicz