Postnormal science

Creativity and imagination are the most important ingredients for coping with post-normal times, according to Sardar.This paper looks at the way creativity itself is being transformed in the West, from the individualistic/atomistic view of Modernity towards a more contextual, collaborative, complex approach. It explores the potential and possibilities for this more participatory creativity to help go beyond the ‘‘crisis of the
future,’’and argues that the centrality of creativity must go beyond the mythology of genius and inspiration to inform philosophy, ethics, and action. Philosophical reflection and the imagination of desirable futures can emerge from a creative ethic that stresses the value of generative interactions and contexts that support creativity.

Uncertainty is a pervasive feature of our times. In this paper I argue that an age of uncertainty is not a reason for despair, but rather an opportunity to develop and mobilize our capacities for creativity, complexity, and collaboration. Creativity because the future is not determined and has to be created. Complex thought because in an uncertain, networked world our thinking cannot be reductive and disjunctive, but must be able to address interconnectedness and uncertainty. Collaboration, because the crises facing humanity today require an awareness of our shared destiny and in a pluralistic society we need the ability to navigate creativity and complexity together.

This paper addresses the views regarding the  certainty and uncertainty of climate science knowledge held by contemporary climate scientists. More precisely, it addresses the extension of this knowledge into the social and political realms as per the definition of postnormal science.  The data for the analysis is drawn from a response rate of approximately 40% from a survey questionnaire mailed to 1000 scientists in Germany, the United States, and Canada, and from a series of in-depth interviews with leading scientists in each country. The international nature of the sample allows for cross-cultural comparisons.
With respect to the relative scientific  discourse, similar assessments of the current state of knowledge are held by the respondents of each country. Almost all scientists agreed that the skill of contemporary models is limited. Minor differences were notable. Scientists from the United States were less convinced of the skills of the models than their German counterparts and, as would be expected under such circumstances, North American scientists perceived the need for societal and political responses to be less urgent than their German counterparts. The international consensus was, however, apparent regarding the utility of the knowledge to date: climate science has provided enough knowledge so that the initiation of abatement measures is warranted. However, consensus also existed regarding the current inability to explicitly specify detrimental effects that might result from climate change. This incompatibility between the state of knowledge and the calls for action suggests that, to some degree at least, scientific advice is a product of both scientific knowledge and normative judgment, suggesting a socioscientific construction of the climate change issue.

The participatory methodology is currently one of the most important innovations of science. In this paper
we provide some ideas and thoughts that we have been obtained from the experience in a number of projects
that we have had the opportunity to apply participatory research models. These projects have been designed
to propose interventions to open the path of dialogue between different social actors and knowledge and
ecological sustainability in local spaces.
Key words: Methodology Participatory, Citizen Involvement, Science Transformation, Local Space, Sustainability

El físico Alvin Weinberg reconocía en los años 60 que estaban comenzando a darse una serie de problemas en el contexto de la Big Science que trascendían el terreno seguro de la ciencia. Una década más tarde habló explícitamente de trans-science o cuestiones transcientíficas. Dichas cuestiones surgen debido a conflictos que emergen en el curso de interacción entre la ciencia, la tecnología y la sociedad. A pesar de que son cuestio-nes de hecho y pueden ser enunciadas en lenguaje científico, no pueden ser respondidas por la ciencia: la trascienden. El objeti-vo principal de este trabajo es situar la crisis sanitaria dentro del marco de la transciencia. Complejizar al COVID-19 identificán-dolo como un problema transcientífico permite mostrarlo tal y como es, facilitando de este modo una mejor comprensión del problema.

Palabras clave: COVID-19, transciencia, incertidum-bre, ciencia básica, políticas científicas Introducción

In the analysis of socioenvironmental conflicts by mining, several studies have pointed out the various causes that give rise to these tension scenarios, especially in local communities. However, one aspect that is not addressed is the perception of risks as a socio-environmental conflict cause. Based on this premise, this work discuss the theories that approach the risks and precautionary principle with the theory of environmental justice in order to identify the common elements between both and their implications in the context of conflicts that involve collectivities. We argue that the analytical link between the precautionary principle and the environmental justice theory allows us to note that in some conflicts regarding mining, in addition to the rejection of risks due to possible polluting effects, there are other interrelated issues of  epistemological, social, cultural, economic and political content that influence in conflict scenarios. The work shows that these interrelations are expressed mainly in the intrinsic limitations of scientific knowledge for the evaluation of risks and uncertainties in complex mining projects, and in the political dispute surrounding the evaluation and decision on risks that could affect incommensurable goods such as the environment, human health and the forms of organization of various communities.

19 Knowledge Use and Political Choice in Dutch Environmental Policy: A Problem Structuring Perspective on Real Life Experiments in Extended Peer Review Matthijs Hisschemoller, Rob Hoppe, Peter Groenewegen, and Cees JH Midden Introduction According to mainstream ...