Author: Beck, Silke

Source: Nature and Culture, Volume 7, Number 2, Summer 2012 , pp. 151-173(23)

Publisher: Berghahn Journals

Abstract:

This article explores how the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has dealt with growing public scrutiny of its workings. It reviews recent initiatives set up to respond to the Climategate controversy. An independent review of the IPCC undertaken by an international scientific umbrella body—InterAcademy Council—can be shown to have triggered one of the turning points in the debate, placing the focus of attention on the IPCC's transparency and accountability. However, the council's recommendations have been implemented by the IPCC in such a way that the issue of public trust is treated as one of effective communication. The article then explains how IPCC's responses to Climategate can be traced back to the linear model of expertise. The article concludes with a discussion why the challenge of producing policy-relevant knowledge under conditions of heightened public scrutiny also requires new forms of scientific appraisal aimed at wider publics.

Keywords: BOUNDARY ORGANIZATION; INTERGOVERNMENTAL PANEL ON CLIMATE CHANGE (IPCC); POST-NORMAL SCIENCE; SCIENCE COMMUNICATION; TRUST

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3167/nc.2012.070203

Publication date: 2012-06-01

More about this publication?

• Nature and Culture is a forum for the international community of scholars and practitioners to present, discuss, and evaluate critical issues and themes related to the historical and contemporary relationships that societies, civilizations, empires, regions, nation -states have with Nature. The journal contains a serious interpolation of theory, methodology, criticism, and concrete observation forming the basis of this discussion. The mission of the journal is to move beyond specialized disciplinary enclaves and mind -sets toward broader syntheses that encompass time, space and structures in understanding the Nature-Culture relationship, as well as to encourage the identification of knowledge gaps in our understanding.
  
  Nature and Culture receives financial support for its editorial operations from the Department of Urban and Environmental Sociology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Leipzig.
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