TY - JOUR
T1 - Contextualizing climate science
T2 - applying social learning systems theory to knowledge production, climate services, and use-inspired research
AU - Owen, Gigi
AU - Ferguson, Daniel B.
AU - McMahan, John Benjamin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, Springer Nature B.V.
PY - 2019/11/1
Y1 - 2019/11/1
N2 - Scientists need to acknowledge the inherent social contexts that drive the scientific process if they want their research to improve complex societal problems such as vulnerability to climate change. Social interactions and relationships are essential elements for conducting use-inspired research, creating usable knowledge, and providing climate services. The Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) program was founded on theories of use-inspired research and co-producing knowledge with non-academic partners. A recent program evaluation illuminated gaps in these underlying program models and led to the inclusion of social learning systems theory and communities of practice. Using grounded examples, we demonstrate the CLIMAS program’s ongoing role in fostering, maintaining, and expanding a climate resilience social learning system in the U.S. Southwest. Broader implications from the evaluation focus on the importance of establishing and maintaining relationships, increasing institutional and individual flexibility in response to change, and improving the practice of transdisciplinarity. These findings inform new program evaluation metrics and data collection techniques. This paper contributes to current theory and practice of use-inspired science and climate services by identifying and demonstrating how social interactions inform climate knowledge production. The reconceptualization of the CLIMAS program as part of a growing regional social learning system serves as an example for similar types of programs. We encourage climate services and use-inspired research programs to explore applications of this framework to their own operations.
AB - Scientists need to acknowledge the inherent social contexts that drive the scientific process if they want their research to improve complex societal problems such as vulnerability to climate change. Social interactions and relationships are essential elements for conducting use-inspired research, creating usable knowledge, and providing climate services. The Climate Assessment for the Southwest (CLIMAS) program was founded on theories of use-inspired research and co-producing knowledge with non-academic partners. A recent program evaluation illuminated gaps in these underlying program models and led to the inclusion of social learning systems theory and communities of practice. Using grounded examples, we demonstrate the CLIMAS program’s ongoing role in fostering, maintaining, and expanding a climate resilience social learning system in the U.S. Southwest. Broader implications from the evaluation focus on the importance of establishing and maintaining relationships, increasing institutional and individual flexibility in response to change, and improving the practice of transdisciplinarity. These findings inform new program evaluation metrics and data collection techniques. This paper contributes to current theory and practice of use-inspired science and climate services by identifying and demonstrating how social interactions inform climate knowledge production. The reconceptualization of the CLIMAS program as part of a growing regional social learning system serves as an example for similar types of programs. We encourage climate services and use-inspired research programs to explore applications of this framework to their own operations.
KW - Climate services
KW - Communities of practice
KW - Evaluation
KW - Social learning systems
KW - Use-inspired research
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U2 - 10.1007/s10584-019-02466-x
DO - 10.1007/s10584-019-02466-x
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85067244425
SN - 0165-0009
VL - 157
SP - 151
EP - 170
JO - Climatic Change
JF - Climatic Change
IS - 1
ER -