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A brief history of usable climate science

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Abstract

Recently, certain members of the scientific community have framed anthropogenic climate change as an invitation to reimagine the practice of science. These calls to reinvent science coalesce around the notion of usable knowledge, signaling the need to ensure that research will serve the needs of those impacted by climate change. But how novel is this concept? A historical analysis reveals that the goal of usability is haunted by Euro-American conceptions of instrumental knowledge dating back to the nineteenth century. Even as climate research institutions have embraced the radical epistemic ideal of usability over the past 40 years, they have clung to older definitions of research that are at odds with its anti-individualist implications.

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Notes

  1. In political science, pluralism is the theory that democracy is best served by competition among interest groups. This is to be distinguished from scientific pluralism, the principle that the world cannot be described by any single unified theory and that science therefore needs a multiplicity of methods and epistemic frameworks.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Libby O’Neill for research assistance, Bill Clark, Heather Douglas, Peter Galison, Jo Guldi, Sheila Jasanoff, and Adam Sobel for constructive feedback, David Guston for sharing research materials, and Shardul Agrawala, Kenny Broad, Mark Cane, Bill Clark, Mickey Glantz, Lisa Goddard, Jill Jaeger, Maria Carmen Lemos, and many other researchers at IIASA and IRI for sharing their recollections.

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  1. Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA

    Deborah R. Coen

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  1. Deborah R. Coen
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Correspondence to Deborah R. Coen.

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This article is part of the topical collection "Critical and historical perspectives on usable climate science", edited by Deborah R. Coen and Adam H. Sobel.

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Coen, D.R. A brief history of usable climate science. Climatic Change 167, 51 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03181-2

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