Abstract

HIDALGO, Cecilia  and  NATENZON, Claudia E.. Social appropriation of science: decision-making and provision of climate services to climate-sensitive sectors in southeastern South America. Rev. iberoam. cienc. tecnol. soc. [online]. 2014, vol.9, n.25, pp.133-145. ISSN 1850-0013.

The production of relevant and usable knowledge constitutes a challenge for scientists, bridging in a renewed way the gap between those concerned with society and those concerned with nature. The significant advances of contemporary climate science would expand further if a robust social appropriation of science informed both public and private decision-making. The concept of "climate services" recently adopted by the World Meteorological Organization expresses a new perspective on socio-environmental systems and synthesizes the will to produce climate information and knowledge to match the needs and expectations of different profiles of actors and climate-sensitive sectors. Climate information production is not enough to provide these services. Decision-making requires progress in the appropriation of science by society. Communication among scientists, decision-makers and stakeholders, translation of information into impacts and guidelines for action, exploration of innovative institutional forms become mandatory. After a brief review of discussions and initiatives around the importance of articulating social and environmental knowledge through the consideration of "human dimensions" in the characterization of global change, this article shows how collaboration between natural and social scientists has shifted into interactive and horizontal forms of research. In particular, these considerations are deployed in the characterization of the actions of a multinational, multidisciplinary, collaborative research network that includes stakeholders as peers in the project IAI CRN3035 on climate services.

Keywords : Climate change; Climate services; Social needs.

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