Extended peer community

Last updated

The concept of Extended peer community belongs to the field of Sociology of science, and in particular the use of science in the solution of social, political or ecological problems. It was first introduced by in the 1990s by Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome R. Ravetz. [1] in the context of what would become Post-normal science. An Extended peer community is intended by these authors as a space where both credentialed experts from different disciplines and lay stakeholders can discuss and deliberate.

Contents

Content

An Extended peer community is intended by its creators [2] [3] as an arrangement at the science policy interface that helps to expand and assess both the knowledge-base and the value-base of policy-making'. [4]

Post-normal science's extended peer community argues for two kind of extensions: first, more than one discipline is assumed to have a potential bearing on the issue being debated, thereby providing different lenses to consider the problem. Second the community is extended to lay actors, taken to be all those with stakes, or an interest, in the given issue. [3] [5]

The lay members of the community thus constituted may also take upon themselves active 'research' tasks; this has happened e.g. in the so-called 'popular epidemiology', [6] when the official authorities have shown reluctance to perform investigations deemed necessary by the communities affected - for example - by a case of air or water pollution, [7] [8] and more recently ‘citizen science’. The extended community can usefully investigate the quality of the scientific assessments provided by the experts, the definition of the problem, as well as research priorities and research questions. [3] [4]

An example of extended peer community in action is offered by Brian Wynne, who discusses the Cumbrian sheep farmers' interaction with scientists and authorities, mobilizing farmers' knowledge of the relevant situation (acid upland moors retaining radioactive deposition from fallout longer than the lowland Oxfordshire meadows on which the official parameters were based). [9] [10]

Extended peer communities and Post-normal Science have been suggested to tackle the debate on the policy and regulation of Large Language Models [11] in order to encourage "inclusion of previously marginalised perspectives".

The concept of extended peer community was developed in the context of politicised quality controversies in science [12] (such as 'housewife' or 'popular' epidemiology [6] ), early evidence-based medicine (the Cochrane collaboration), and the total quality management ideas of W. Edwards Deming, in particular quality circles. EPC is discussed in a special issue of the journal Science, Technology, & Human Values. [13] For Eugene A. Rosa EPC can help charting "extended facts", meant as local knowledge, understanding, and non academic sources. [14]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Outline of academic disciplines</span> Academic fields of study or professions

An academic discipline or field of study is a branch of knowledge, taught and researched as part of higher education. A scholar's discipline is commonly defined by the university faculties and learned societies to which they belong and the academic journals in which they publish research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Science studies</span> Research area analyzing scientific expertise

Science studies is an interdisciplinary research area that seeks to situate scientific expertise in broad social, historical, and philosophical contexts. It uses various methods to analyze the production, representation and reception of scientific knowledge and its epistemic and semiotic role.

Scientific consensus is the generally held judgment, position, and opinion of the majority or the supermajority of scientists in a particular field of study at any particular time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Index of sociology articles</span>

This is an index of sociology articles. For a shorter list, see List of basic sociology topics.

Public awareness of science (PAS) is everything relating to the awareness, attitudes, behaviors, opinions, and activities that comprise the relations between the general public or lay society as a whole to scientific knowledge and organization. This concept is also known as public understanding of science (PUS), or more recently, public engagement with science and technology (PEST). It is a comparatively new approach to the task of exploring the multitude of relations and linkages science, technology, and innovation have among the general public. While early work in the discipline focused on increasing or augmenting the public's knowledge of scientific topics, in line with the information deficit model of science communication, the deficit model has largely been abandoned by science communication researchers. Instead, there is an increasing emphasis on understanding how the public chooses to use scientific knowledge and on the development of interfaces to mediate between expert and lay understandings of an issue. Newer frameworks of communicating science include the dialogue and the participation models. The dialogue model aims to create spaces for conversations between scientists and non-scientists to occur while the participation model aims to include non-scientists in the process of science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Post-normal science</span> Approach to the use of science on urgent issues involving uncertainty in facts and moral values

Post-normal science (PNS) was developed in the 1990s by Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome R. Ravetz. It is a problem-solving strategy appropriate when "facts [are] uncertain, values in dispute, stakes high and decisions urgent", conditions often present in policy-relevant research. In those situations, PNS recommends suspending temporarily the traditional scientific ideal of truth, concentrating on quality as assessed by internal and extended peer communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerome Ravetz</span> American philosopher

Jerome (Jerry) Ravetz is a philosopher of science. He is best known for his books analysing scientific knowledge from a social and ethical perspective, focussing on issues of quality. He is the co-author of the NUSAP notational system and of Post-normal science. He is currently an Associate Fellow at the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society, University of Oxford.

Brian Wynne is Professor Emeritus of Science Studies and a former Research Director of the Centre for the Study of Environmental Change (CSEC) at the Lancaster University. His education includes an MA, PhD, MPhil. His work has covered technology and risk assessment, public risk perceptions, and public understanding of science, focusing on the relations between expert and lay knowledge and policy decision-making.

Environmental social science is the broad, transdisciplinary study of interrelations between humans and the natural environment. Environmental social scientists work within and between the fields of anthropology, communication studies, economics, geography, history, political science, psychology, and sociology; and also in the interdisciplinary fields of environmental studies, human ecology and political ecology, social epidemiology, among others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iulie Aslaksen</span> Norwegian economist (born 1956)

Iulie Margrethe Nicolaysen Aslaksen is a Norwegian economist and Senior Researcher at Statistics Norway. She was a member of the Petroleum Price Board from 1990 to 2000. She is an expert on energy and environmental economics, including petroleum economics, climate policy and economics and sustainable development. She is cand.oecon. from the University of Oslo in 1981 and dr.polit. from 1990. She has been a visiting researcher and Fulbright Fellow at Harvard University and the University of California, Berkeley, and Associate Professor of Economics at the University of Oslo. She was a member of the government commissions resulting in the Norwegian Official Report 1988:21 Norsk økonomi i forandring and the Norwegian Official Report 1999:11 Analyse av investeringsutviklingen på kontinentalsokkelen.

Reiner Grundmann, is Professor of Science and Technology Studies (STS) at the University of Nottingham and Director of its interdisciplinary STS Research Priority Group. He is a German sociologist and political scientist who has resided in the UK since 1997. Previous appointments include Aston University and the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

Sensitivity auditing is an extension of sensitivity analysis for use in policy-relevant modelling studies. Its use is recommended - i.a. in the European Commission Impact assessment guidelines and by the European Science Academies- when a sensitivity analysis (SA) of a model-based study is meant to demonstrate the robustness of the evidence provided by the model in the context whereby the inference feeds into a policy or decision-making process.

<i>The Merger of Knowledge with Power</i> Book by Jerome Ravetz

The Merger of Knowledge with Power: Essays in Critical Science is a book written in 1990 by Jerome Ravetz.

NUSAP is a notational system for the management and communication of uncertainty in science for policy, based on five categories for characterizing any quantitative statement: Numeral, Unit, Spread, Assessment and Pedigree. NUSAP was introduced by Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome Ravetz in the 1990 book Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy. See also van der Sluijs et al. 2005.

<i>Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy</i> 1990 book by Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome Ravetz

Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy is a 1990 book by Silvio Funtowicz and Jerome Ravetz, in which the authors explain the notational system NUSAP and applies it to several examples from the environmental sciences. The work is considered foundational to the development of post-normal science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Silvio Funtowicz</span> Philosopher of science

Silvio O. Funtowicz is a philosopher of science active in the field of science and technology studies. He created the NUSAP, a notational system for characterising uncertainty and quality in quantitative expressions, and together with Jerome R. Ravetz he introduced the concept of post-normal science. He is currently a guest researcher at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT), University of Bergen (Norway).

<i>Science on the Verge</i> 2016 book

Science on the verge is a book written in 2016 by group of eight scholars working in the tradition of Post-normal science. The book analyzes the main features and possible causes of the present science's crisis.

<i>The No Nonsense Guide To Science</i> 2006 non-fiction book by Jerome Ravetz

The No Nonsense Guide to Science is a 2006 book on Post-normal science (PNS). It was written by American born British historian and philosopher of science Jerome Ravetz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrea Saltelli</span> Italian researcher (born 1953)

Andrea Saltelli is an Italian scholar specializing in quantification using statistical and sociological tools. He has extended the theory of sensitivity analysis to sensitivity auditing, focusing on physical chemistry, environmental statistics, impact assessment and science for policy. He is currently Counsellor at the UPF Barcelona School of Management.

Horizon scanning (HS) or horizon scan is a method from futures studies, sometimes regarded as a part of foresight. It is the early detection and assessment of emerging technologies or threats for mainly policy makers in a domain of choice. Such domains include agriculture, environmental studies, health care, biosecurity, and food safety.

References

  1. ↑ Funtowicz, S. O. and Ravetz, J. R., 1991. "A New Scientific Methodology for Global Environmental Issues", in Costanza, R. (ed.), Ecological Economics: The Science and Management of Sustainability: 137–152. New York: Columbia University Press.
  2. ↑ Funtowicz, S. O. and Ravetz, J. R., 1992. "Three types of risk assessment and the emergence of postnormal science", in Krimsky, S. and Golding, D. (eds.), Social theories of risk: 251–273. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood.
  3. 1 2 3 Funtowicz, S. and Ravetz, J., 1993. "Science for the post-normal age", Futures, 31(7): 735-755.
  4. 1 2 Carrozza, C. 2015. “Democratizing Expertise and Environmental Governance: Different Approaches to the Politics of Science and Their Relevance for Policy Analysis.” Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning, 17 (1): 108-126.
  5. ↑ Healy, Stephen (1999-09-01). "Extended peer communities and the ascendance of post-normal politics". Futures. 31 (7): 655–669. doi:10.1016/S0016-3287(99)00025-7. ISSN   0016-3287.
  6. ↑ Fjelland, R. 2016. When Laypeople Are Right and Experts Are Wrong: Lessons from Love Canal. International Journal for Philosophy of Chemistry 22 (1):105–125.
  7. ↑ "Flint's Water Crisis and the 'Troublemaker' Scientist". The New York Times . Retrieved 2023-11-22.
  8. ↑ Wynne, Brian. 1992. Uncertainty and Environmental Learning, Reconceiving Science and Policy in the Preventive Paradigm. Global Environmental Change 2 (2):111–127. doi:10.1016/0959-3780(92)90017-2.
  9. ↑ Wynne, B. 1992. “Misunderstood Misunderstanding: Social Identities and Public Uptake of Science.” Public Understanding of Science 1: 281–304.
  10. ↑ House of Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee inquiry: Large language model (LLM0015). (2023). https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/124038/pdf/
  11. ↑ Hulme, Mike (2010). "Claiming and Adjudicating on Mt Kilimanjaro's Shrinking Glaciers: Guy Callendar, Al Gore and Extended Peer Communities". Science as Culture. 19 (3): 303–326. doi:10.1080/09505430903214427. ISSN   0950-5431.
  12. ↑ Turnpenny, J., Jones, M., Lorenzoni, I. (1 May 2011). "Where Now for Post-Normal Science?: A Critical Review of its Development, Definitions, and Uses". Science, Technology, & Human Values. 36 (3). SAGE Publications Inc: 287–306. doi:10.1177/0162243910385789. ISSN   0162-2439.
  13. ↑ Rosa, E. A. (January 1998). "Metatheoretical foundations for post-normal risk". Journal of Risk Research. 1 (1). Taylor & Francis Ltd: 15–44. doi:10.1080/136698798377303. ISSN   1366-9877.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.