Integrating Science and Policy

by Kasperson, Roger E.; Berberian, Mimi

• ISBN13: 9781844076062
• ISBN10: 1844076067
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-03-31
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

As progress towards a greater knowledge in sustainability science continues, the question of how better to integrate scientific progress with actual decisions made by practitioners remains paramount. This book aims to help close the gap between science and practice. Based on a two year collaborative project between Harvard and Clark Universities, the book takes as its focus the vulnerability and resilience of people around the world to the effects of environmental change, a mature area of research in which one might expect the gap between science and policy/practice to have been extensively bridged. The book presents analysis of past studies, interviews conducted with the producers and users of scientific knowledge, and case studies performed by leading scholars across a spectrum of international settings and political systems. Crucially, the authors identify new directions and tools for closing the gap between science and policy across a range of situations and societies. The result is an illuminating collection of studies and analyses that suggest to researchers, students, practitioners, and policy-makers alike how best to ensure that high quality environmental research informs good environmental policy and practice.

Author Biography

Roger E. Kasperson is Research Professor at Clark University and a Visiting Scholar at Start in Washington DC. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Society for Risk Analysis. He has served on numerous committees of the US National Research Council. He is a former Executive Director of the Stockholm Environment Institute. Mimi Berberian is a Senior Staff Associate at the George Perkins Marsh Institute at Clark University. She has participated with researchers in various studies of natural and technological hazards, risk assessment and risk management, and global environmental change. She has a long experience in editing and has facilitated the preparation of numerous research results for publication as journal articles and books, including Equity Issues in Radioactive Waste Management, Climate Impact Assessment and Social Contours of Risk.

Table of Contents

List of figures, tables and boxes	p. ix
List of contributors	p. xiii
List of acronyms and abbreviations	p. xv
Introduction
Characterizing the Science/Practice Gap	p. 3
What Do We Know Now?
Knowledge to Practice in the Vulnerability, Adaptation and Resilience Literature: A Propositional Inventory	p. 23
Integrating Science and Practice for the Mitigation of Natural Disasters: Barriers, Bridges, Propositions	p. 51
Linking Vulnerability, Adaptation and Resilience Science to Practice: Pathways, Players and Partnerships	p. 97
Growing Political Urgency: Climate Change
The US Climate Change Science Program	p. 131
Linking Climate Change Science with Policy in California	p. 151
Russia's Climate Policy and the Kyoto Ratification Deal: Assessing the Science/Practice Interface	p. 169
Urban and Social Vulnerability to Climate Variability in Tijuana, Mexico	p. 187
The Science/Practice Gap: Global Perspectives
Food Insecurity in South Africa	p. 215
Science and Vulnerability Reduction in Taiwan after the 1999 Chi-Chi Earthquake	p. 233
Participatory Evaluation of Development Interventions in a Vulnerable African Environment	p. 269
Science and Indigenous Knowledge in Resource Management in the Canadian Arctic	p. 291
Reducing Vulnerability of Rural Communities in the Philippines: Modelling Social Links between Science and Policy	p. 307
Addressing Vulnerability in the European Programme for Food Aid and Food Security: Knowledge Gaps, Obstacles and Opportunities Across the Science/Practice Interface	p. 335
Land in Transition: Coping with Market Forces in Managing Rangelands in Mongolia	p. 363
Managing Floods and Scarcity in a Monsoon Climate	p. 381
Where Do We Go from Here?
Issues that Need to be Addressed: Assessing Experience	p. 421
Directions for Closing the Science/Practice Gap	p. 427
Index	p. 441
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