ASTK15491U SEMINAR: Climate Science & Politics
Elective course in the specialization "International Relations, Diplomacy and Conflict Studies"
The course is open to all master students
Climate science has long been in the center of political debates
over mitigation policies and politics. But what does it mean when
climate science is informing politics? Should scientists play a
role in public discussions on climate change, and can science and
politics meaningfully be separated from one another?
These are some of the questions being explored in this course.
This course explores the general issues of science, politics,
knowledge and expertise in the context of climate change. The
objective of the course is to engage students with the latest
theories, frameworks, approaches and methods for addressing
critical questions of science based policymaking. Although science
is important to the political response to climate change, the
relationship is not clear. The course will explore this
relationship and consider if climate science contributes and
supports political agency and collaborative action on the
climate agenda.
The course provides introductory understanding of the relationships
between climate science and politics and of the critical - and
contested - role of scientific knowledge and expertise in political
decision-making processes. The course gives a brief understanding
of the physical science behind the official IPCC recommendations,
and introduces several broad theoretical approaches from the
academic field of Science and Technology Studies (STS) enabling
students to discuss how science and politics are intertwined. The
course will address key questions of how climate experts and
scientific advisors are influencing policymaking processes. It will
discuss the debates of science based policymaking in different
political contexts and explore the underlying reasons why climate
science plays different roles in different political cultures.
Course outline
- Climate Change: Understanding the physical basis
- Perspectives from Science and Technology Studies
- Dealing with risk and uncertainty in science and politics
- The role of scientists and experts in politics
- International scientific knowledge and climate change: Taking a closer look at the IPCC
- The case of geo-engineering techniques
- Student seminar: Summing up and student paper presentations
On completion of this course, students should be able to:
Knowledge
- Describe how climate science informs and influences policymaking
- Understand and reflect on the major debates over climate science and policymaking found in the academic literature, reports, policy documents and the media
Skills
- Discuss how climate science and climate politics are intertwined in political decision-making processes
- Adopt and defend different theoretical positions drawing upon the literature presented during the course
Competences
- Apply theoretical knowledge of science based policymaking to specific relevant cases and be able to make informed and analytical evaluations of science based policies
Preliminary reading list (900-1200 pages):
Bjurstrom A, Polk M (2011a) Climate change and interdisciplinarity: a co-citation analysis of IPCC Third Assessment Report. Scientometrics, vol. 87, pp. 525–550
Callon, M., Lascoumes, P., Barthe, Y., (2009) Acting in an Uncertain World: An Essay on Technical Democracy, trans. G Burchell. Boston: MIT Press
Collins, Harry M.; Evans, Robert (2007). Rethinking Expertise. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Demeritt, D. (2001). The construction of global warming and the politics of science. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 91(2), 307-337.
Forsyth T., (2012) Politicizing Environmental Science Does Not Mean Denying Climate Science Nor Endorsing It Without Question, Global Environmental Politics, vol. 12(2), pp.
Funtowicz, S. O., and J. R. Ravetz (1993). Science for the Post-Normal Age, Futures, vol. 25(7), pp. 739–755.
Hulme (2012). Climate change: Climate engineering through stratospheric aerosol injection, Progress in Physical Geography, vol. 36(5), pp. 694-705.
Hulme, M. (2009) Why we disagree about climate change: understanding controversy, inaction and opportunity Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
Machin, A. (2013) Negotiating climate change: radical democracy and the illusion of consensus Zed Books, London
IPCC (2014): Climate Change 2014 Synthesis Report. Contribution of Working Groups I, II and III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
Jasanoff et al. eds. (1995) Handbook of Science and Technology Studies, (London: Sage)
Jasanoff S (2007) Designs on Nature: Science and Democracy in Europe and the United States Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press
Wynne, Brian (1992): ’Misunderstood Misunderstanding: Social Identities and Public Uptake of Science’. Public Understanding of Science 1: 281-304.
Latour, B (2004) Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern. Critical Inquiry, 30
Markusson N., Ginn F., Ghaleigh N.S., and V. Scott (2014). In case of emergency press here’: framing geoengineering as a response to dangerous climate change†, WIREs Climate Change, vol. 5, pp. 281-290.
Pielke, RA (2005), Misdefining "climate change": consequences for science and action. Environ. Sci. Policy, vol. 8(6), pp, 548-561
Rudiak-Gould,P. (2013) ‘We have seen it with our own eyes’: why we disagree about climate change visibility Weather, Climate & Society 5(2), 120-132
Sarewitz D (2011): Does climate change knowledge really matter? WIREs Climate Change, vol. 2(4), pp. 475-481
Skoglund A and T. Jensen (2013). The Professionalization of Ethics in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) – from Servant of Science to Ethical Master?, Sustainable Development, vol. 21, pp. 122–130
Slovic, P. (1999). ”Trust, emotion, sex, politics, and science: Surveying the risk-assessment battlefield”, Risk analysis, vol. 19(4), pp. 689–701.
Tol R (2011) Regulating knowledge monopolies: the case of the IPCC. Climate Change, vol. 108(4), pp. 827–839.
- Interest and/or knowledge of climate politics
- Category
- Hours
- Class Instruction
- 28
- Total
- 28
- Credit
- 7,5 ECTS
- Type of assessment
- Written assignmentIndividuel written assignment
- Marking scale
- passed/not passed
- Censorship form
- No external censorship
Criteria for exam assesment
Passed/Not passed
Course information
- Language
- English
- Course code
- ASTK15491U
- Credit
- 7,5 ECTS
- Level
- Full Degree Master
- Duration
- 1 block
- Placement
- Block 2
- Schedule
- .
- Study board
- Department of Political Science, Study Council
Contracting department
- Department of Political Science
Course Coordinators
- Anne Bach Nielsen (3-646571436c6976316e7831676e)