NSF Award Abstract - #0119875| NSF Award Abstract - #0119875 |
AWSFL008-DS3 |
| NSF Org | SES |
| Latest Amendment Date | September 24, 2001 |
| Award Number | 0119875 |
| Award Instrument | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager |
Daniel H. Newlon SES DIVN OF SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC SCIENCES SBE DIRECT FOR SOCIAL, BEHAV & ECONOMIC SCIE |
| Start Date | October 1, 2001 |
| Expires | August 31, 2003 (Estimated) |
| Expected Total Amount | $99637 (Estimated) |
| Investigator |
Richard B. Norgaard norgaard@socrates.berkeley.edu (Principal Investigator current) John Harte (Co-Principal Investigator current) |
| Sponsor |
U of Cal Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720 510/642-6000 |
| NSF Program | 1320 ECONOMICS |
| Field Application | |
| Program Reference Code | 1689,1691,5209,9278,EGCH, |
This project brings faculty from the social and natural sciences at the University of California at Berkeley into a comparative analysis of how the use and presentation of models of coupled human and natural systems can be improved. With no single model representing the full complexity in a manageable way, both scientific and public understanding must come through "piecing together" findings from separate models that emphasize different parts of complex systems. This process of "piecing together" is currently not working very well. There are, for example, communication barriers between scientists of different disciplines as well as between scientists and the public. In some cases, different models provide conflicting insights, or information with conflicting policy implications, for which there is no scientific resolution. In such cases, different political and economic interests find it advantageous to emphasize selective information from particular models. This project will explore whether the process of communicating information from disparate models might be improved, for example, through the establishment of scientific and public standards. The possibilities for using new institutions such as "science juries" also will be considered, as well as how the training of scientists could be modified to reduce the problem. This project facilitates the development of new approaches and their application; the comparison of case studies; serious, open discussion in a workshop that will include philosophers of science and graduate students; and the drafting of a textbook for graduate students who are preparing to work at the interface of science and policy.People are now aware that the overall level and especially some types of human activity are having profound, and largely irreversible, effects on the global environment. Scientists who study these effects, however, are having difficulty grappling with the complexity of the couplings between human and natural systems. These difficulties that are internal to science become amplified as scientists try to communicate what they know to the public, and different public's listen selectively according to their economic and political interests. Communication problems make it very difficult to transform what scientists do know into effective policy. This project explores ways that these difficulties can be reduced through standards for the presentation of scientific information about complex systems, the training of scientists, and the development of new institutions for connecting scientific information to the public. This project is an award emanating from the FY2001 special competition in Biocomplexity in the Environment focusing on the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems.
