TY - JOUR
T1 - Implementing a knowledge system
T2 - Lessons from the global stewardship of climate services
AU - Guido, Zack
AU - Knudson, Chris
AU - Gerlak, Andrea K.
AU - Mason, Simon
AU - Hewitt, Chris D.
AU - Muth, Meredith
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Filipe Lucio and Erica Allis of the WMO for thoughtful contributions. Contributions by Zack Guido and Simon Mason were supported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration grant NA18OAR4310338.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2022/5
Y1 - 2022/5
N2 - Knowledge systems are mechanisms that can drive climate adaptation through the pursuits of enhancing resource sharing, collaboration, and learning, while at the same time helping to develop trust and credibility among individuals and intuitions. While these goals are widely discussed, less is known about the activities and strategies that knowledge systems undertake to achieve these goals. We analyze the Global Framework of Climate Services (GFCS) as a knowledge system organized around the translation of weather and climate information for decision-making. The GFCS brings together the World Meteorological Organization, national meteorological and hydrological services, and some of the world's largest multilateral scientific, humanitarian, and development organizations. Our analysis draws on key informant interviews, focus groups conducted in African countries, and an online survey of GFCS participants. We describe the main activities pursed by the GFCS that shaped the vision of climate services, built capacity in national climate adaptation, and created connections among diverse actors and organizations worldwide. We show how these activities generated tensions about the purpose of the GFCS and how influence among the knowledge system was distributed. Based on our results, we illustrate new ways to conceptualize the strategies of knowledge systems, which we describe as (1) theorizing the norms of practice and mechanisms of change, (2) legitimizing actors, and (3) managing knowledge. These strategies identify pathways for, and pitfalls to, a knowledge system's pursuit of its goals, providing guidance to managers of knowledge systems and an analytical framework to evaluate their impacts.
AB - Knowledge systems are mechanisms that can drive climate adaptation through the pursuits of enhancing resource sharing, collaboration, and learning, while at the same time helping to develop trust and credibility among individuals and intuitions. While these goals are widely discussed, less is known about the activities and strategies that knowledge systems undertake to achieve these goals. We analyze the Global Framework of Climate Services (GFCS) as a knowledge system organized around the translation of weather and climate information for decision-making. The GFCS brings together the World Meteorological Organization, national meteorological and hydrological services, and some of the world's largest multilateral scientific, humanitarian, and development organizations. Our analysis draws on key informant interviews, focus groups conducted in African countries, and an online survey of GFCS participants. We describe the main activities pursed by the GFCS that shaped the vision of climate services, built capacity in national climate adaptation, and created connections among diverse actors and organizations worldwide. We show how these activities generated tensions about the purpose of the GFCS and how influence among the knowledge system was distributed. Based on our results, we illustrate new ways to conceptualize the strategies of knowledge systems, which we describe as (1) theorizing the norms of practice and mechanisms of change, (2) legitimizing actors, and (3) managing knowledge. These strategies identify pathways for, and pitfalls to, a knowledge system's pursuit of its goals, providing guidance to managers of knowledge systems and an analytical framework to evaluate their impacts.
KW - Climate adaptation
KW - Climate services
KW - Global Framework for Climate Services
KW - Knowledge networks
KW - Knowledge systems
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U2 - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102516
DO - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102516
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85128218053
VL - 74
JO - Global Environmental Change
JF - Global Environmental Change
SN - 0959-3780
M1 - 102516
ER -