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SAMKUL-Samfunnsutviklingens kulturell

Go Figure: Visualizing Climate Change

Awarded: NOK 0.18 mill.

The proposed researcher network aims to contribute to a broader knowledge base for meeting challenges related to climate change and accompanying environmental changes. It focuses on the roles of images and other forms of visualisation in climate research, in research and decision making on adaptation and mitigation issues, and climate risk communication. Images of climate change has received comparatively little attention in the overall effort to develop a knowledge base for robust policy decisions. Often, images of climate change represent and reinforce particular framings of the climate issue and are thereby powerful tools for framing and reframing climate mitigation and adaptation challenges (De Boer et al, 2010). Images can also be very effective in engaging and putting into motion a wider community of citizens, policy makers, and researchers in tackling the grand challenges of climate change. With climate images is meant visualizations of scientific data (measurements), illustrations of scientific knowledge, and disseminations and reinterpretations of these in science communication broadly understood, from illustrations of climate change-related effects in the environment, of scenarios for mitigation, adaptation, and political activism. The project activities so far include a workshop in Bergen in January 2016, three sessions at the S.net-conference 2016 in October 2016 (Bergen) and a workshop in November 2016 in Potsdam.

Images of climate change has received comparatively little attention in the overall effort to develop a knowledge base for robust policy decisions. Go Figure: Visualizing Climate Change (FIGO) will contribute to a broader knowledge base for meeting challenges related to climate change and accomanying environmental changes by focusing on the roles of images in climate research, in climate communication, as well as in climate change policy. By climate images we mean visualizations of scientific data (measurements), illustrations of scientific knowledge, and disseminations and reinterpretations of these in science communication broadly understood, such as illustrations of climate change-related effects in the environment, scenarios for mitigation, adaptation, and political activism. The network, which consists of more than 20 researchers from a wide variety of fields, will provide a meeting place for the nascent field if climate image studies, and will serve as a platform from wich a comprehensive research project on climate images can be launched. The main activities of the project will be a workshop in 2015 and a conference in 2016.

Funding scheme:

SAMKUL-Samfunnsutviklingens kulturell