Overview
Explores the idea that the lived experience of climate change is central to the challenge of solving this global problem
Represents a new, comprehensive and powerful lens on climate change that sets it apart from other previously published titles
Develops the term ‘public action theory of knowledge’ as a powerful analytical tool for exploring how decisions on intervention are reached and enacted
Includes supplementary material: sn.pub/extras
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Table of contents (11 chapters)
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Front Matter
Keywords
- Climate Change Policy and Public Agenda
- Climate Change Research
- Climate Change Societal Challenge
- Climate Change and Public Action
- Lied Experience of Climate Change
- Perspectives on Climate Change
- Public Action Theory of Knowledge on Climate Change
- Scientist’s Perspective on Climate Change
- climate change
About this book
This book explores the idea that daily lived experiences of climate change are a crucial missing link in our knowledge that contrasts with scientific understandings of this global problem. It argues that both kinds of knowledge are limiting: the sciences by their disciplines and lived experiences by the boundaries of everyday lives. Therefore each group needs to engage the other in order to enrich and expand understanding of climate change and what to do about it.
Complemented by a rich collection of examples and case studies, this book proposes a novel way of generating and analysing knowledge about climate change and how it may be used. The reader is introduced to new insights where the book:
• Provides a framework that explains the variety of simultaneous, co-existing and often contradictory perspectives on climate change.
• Reclaims everyday experiential knowledge as crucial for meeting global challenges such as climate change.
• Overcomes the science-citizen dichotomy and leads to new ways of examining public engagement with science. Scientists are also human beings with lived experiences that filter their scientific findings into knowledge and actions.
• Develops a ‘public action theory of knowledge’ as a tool for exploring how decisions on climate policy and intervention are reached and enacted.
While scientists (physical and social) seek to explain climate change and its impacts, millions of people throughout the world experience it personally in their daily lives. The experience might be bad, as during extreme weather, engender hostility when governments attempt mitigation, and sometimes it is benign. This book seeks to understand the complex, often contradictory knowledge dynamics that inform the climate change debate, and is written clearly for a broad audience including lecturers, students, practitioners and activists, indeed anyone who wishes to gain further insight into this far-reaching issue.
Authors and Affiliations
About the authors
Gordon Wilson was until his retirement in December 2011 full Professor of Environment and Development, and is now Emeritus Professor, at the Open University. He retains an active research interest in social learning and its potential to generate knowledge with respect to environmental issues in a development context. He has published extensively on the topic, including a Reader where he was the major editor and a book (co-authored with a colleague). He led the interdisciplinary European Union Erasmus project, ‘The lived experience of climate change’, where he pioneered the intellectual development of the concept through on-line Masters teaching modules, and as co-editor (with Dina Abbott) of a journal special issue.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: The Lived Experience of Climate Change
Book Subtitle: Knowledge, Science and Public Action
Authors: Dina Abbott, Gordon Wilson
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-17945-2
Publisher: Springer Cham
eBook Packages: Energy, Energy (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-17944-5Published: 08 May 2015
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-36227-4Published: 09 October 2016
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-17945-2Published: 22 April 2015
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: X, 268
Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 11 illustrations in colour
Topics: Energy Policy, Economics and Management, Climate Change, Energy Systems, Environmental Law/Policy/Ecojustice, Environmental Economics