Talking past each other

Posted by & filed under Climate Change, Climate Services, CSAG Blog, Frontpage, Uncategorized.

I might be tempted to restate the title as “Hierarchical confusions in intellectual debate” – but then I’ll be accused (again) of using big words. However, it is my experience that as climate science engages more across communities and disciplines, increasingly the conversations initially miss their targets, and finding convergence requires iteration.   In my dialogues… Read more »

What is a successful climate service?

Posted by & filed under Climate Services, Frontpage, Uncategorized.

Sitting through the late afternoon session of the 5th International Conference on Climate Services currently being co-hosted by CSAG and GERICS in Cape Town, the presenters were tackling the question: “What are effective climate services”. The panel discussion sessions spent some time looking at the question of determining the success of a climate service activity… Read more »

Telling stories: A multi-disciplinary co-production device?

Posted by & filed under Climate Services, CSAG Blog, Frontpage.

Dianne Scott and Chris Jack (co-authored) What are narratives?  Narratives are really just an academic way of talking about stories.  Narratives, or stories, have a number of important elements.  They describe different actors which can be people, institutions, environments, species, etc.  Some actors may be villains, others may be victims, yet others may be saviors. … Read more »

FRACTAL’s first learning lab: the moment we’ve all been waiting for…

Posted by & filed under Climate Services, CSAG Blog, Frontpage.

Wednesday, 7 September 2016, and the stage was being set for FRACTAL’s first learning lab event: a large circle of participants (40 or so) filled a workshop room that was void of tables and computers. A “safe space” for knowledge co-production was being created as participants expressed their requests for freedom of speech, creativity, honesty… Read more »

Communities of Practice: When do they succeed?

Posted by & filed under Climate Services, CSAG Blog, Frontpage.

Anna Steynor, Katharine Vincent (Kulima Integrated Development Solutions), Katinka Waagsaether and Tracy Cull (Kulima Integrated Development Solutions) The establishment of a “community of practice” (COP) is an idealised vision that is often expressed as a desirable outcome of research projects.  The successful establishment of a COP is seen to embody the notion of extending the… Read more »

Water Harvesting Toolkit Launch

Posted by & filed under Climate Services, CSAG Blog, Frontpage.

Written by Rodger Duffett   The Water Harvesting Toolkit is an extension to the Climate Information Platform (CIP) that was funded by the South African Water Research Commission (WRC) under the SmartWater Fund initiative. It provides a link between climate data stored in the CIP and a practical application of the data. The toolkit was… Read more »

Should climate research be driven by its use?

Posted by & filed under Climate Services, CSAG Blog, Frontpage.

When did climate science research become about what the user wants? When did climate science start having an interested “user”? A quick google of the definition of “research”: the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions. Nowhere in that definition does it mention that… Read more »