Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating the Use and Impact of Social Knowledge Claims concerning Regional Changes

博士论文研究：调查有关区域变化的社会知识主张的使用和影响

• 批准号: 1155402
• 负责人: Steven Epstein
• 金额: $ 1.5万
• 依托单位: Northwestern University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-03-15 至 2014-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1155402&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Investigating; Use

IntroductionThis project examines the epistemic significance of attempts to reframe climate change as a human rights concern. What is striking about the application of human rights to climate change is how it brings social knowledge into conversation with natural science. As with many environmental problems, natural scientific knowledge and experts figure prominently in the construction of climate change. By contrast, advocates of a human rights-based approach re-frame climate change as a social problem and rely on social knowledge claims to support their assertions.Intellectual MeritThrough content analysis and interviews with key actors, this project analyzes this important shift in the dominant discourse and knowledge-making practices in relation to climate change. Specifically, it asks two questions. How do advocates employ social knowledge claims to demonstrate the link between human rights and climate change? What impact may the use of social knowledge claims have on the climate debate? Such research contributes to a basic framework for studying social knowledge and provides insight as to the role of social knowledge in policy debates, as well as practices that lend social knowledge credibility. This project further extends our understanding of the co-production of scientific and political orders from cases involving the natural sciences to those involving social knowledge. Potential Broader ImpactsBeyond its intellectual contributions, examining how the deployment of social knowledge potentially challenges dominant natural scientific constructions of climate change may yield strategies for overcoming the political gridlock that often accompanies technocratic debate, thus facilitating more effective policy-making. Further analyzing the human rights frame's political impact, including its effect on the range of participants eligible to contribute to the climate debate, may also provide practical insights as to how to incorporate a wider range of participants, including the public, into scientific and political debates.

导言本项目探讨了试图将气候变化重新定义为人权问题的认识意义。将人权应用于气候变化的惊人之处在于它如何将社会知识与自然科学相结合。与许多环境问题一样，自然科学知识和专家在气候变化的建设中占有突出地位。相比之下，基于人权的方法的倡导者将气候变化重新定义为一个社会问题，并依靠社会知识主张来支持他们的主张。知识价值通过内容分析和对关键参与者的采访，该项目分析了与气候变化有关的主导话语和知识实践的重要转变。具体来说，它提出了两个问题。倡导者如何利用社会知识主张来证明人权与气候变化之间的联系？社会知识主张的使用可能对气候辩论产生什么影响？这种研究有助于建立一个研究社会知识的基本框架，并使人们了解社会知识在政策辩论中的作用，以及使社会知识具有公信力的做法。该项目进一步扩展了我们对科学和政治秩序的共同生产的理解，从涉及自然科学的案例到涉及社会知识的案例。潜在的更广泛的影响除了它的智力贡献，研究如何部署社会知识的潜在挑战占主导地位的自然科学结构的气候变化可能产生的战略，克服政治僵局，往往伴随着技术官僚的辩论，从而促进更有效的决策。进一步分析人权框架的政治影响，包括其对有资格为气候辩论做出贡献的参与者范围的影响，也可能为如何将包括公众在内的更广泛的参与者纳入科学和政治辩论提供实际见解。