Tyndall Briefing Note No.

9
December 2003

Post-Normal Science and (Ravetz, 2002), medicine (Sweeney & Kernick, 2002,
Laugharne & Laugharne, 2002) as well as climate
the Tyndall Centre: science (Bray & von Storch, 1999, Saloranta, 2001).
In all these fields, action on issues depends on many
some critical issues value-driven decisions made in the face of uncertainty.
It moves beyond traditional research, where ‘truthful
output’ is everything, to a method where the quality of
John Turnpenny the process of research is paramount. Complex
Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research problems will never be fully understood before action is
and School of Environmental Sciences needed to address them; a ‘post-normal process’
includes enabling these actions through joint learning
University of East Anglia and research with those who will carry out the actions,
Norwich, NR4 7TJ, UK through participation in research by stakeholders as
well as specialists. This ensures a ‘grounding’ or
contextualisation of research within the practical world
Tel: + 44-1603-593908 in which it is applied.
Fax: + 44-1603-593901
E-mail: [email protected] The Tyndall Centre
The Tyndall Centre was established in 2000 to pioneer
new ways of carrying out research on climate change –
Foreword research which would be shaped by both academic
A preliminary version of this briefing note was creativity and the needs of those outside academia.
presented at the 2003 Tyndall Assembly, in the This is known commonly as ‘policy-relevant’ research.
breakout session on “Interaction with Non- Both the direction and content of research, and
Academic Communities”. The insights from the institutional structure, of the Tyndall Centre, have been
ensuing discussion have been written into this crafted to deliver this objective. Climate change is not
document. It is intended first as a short overview simply a subject (literally) of academic interest – we
of ‘post-normal science’, and second as an need to enable actions to address climate change, and
exploration of exactly what this might mean for an to do that we must engage well with those
academic research organisation’s day-to-day organisations who will do this. Tyndall activities have
practices. included large amounts of interaction with government
and government agencies, the private sector, advocacy
groups, charities and other bodies.
New Forms of Science
Responding to climate change covers issues of However, this creates an obvious tension – and one
great complexity, involving many organisations, that was explicitly recognised in the Tyndall Research
many spatial and time scales and many academic Strategy:
disciplines. In traditional Western methods of
research, understanding of the world is achieved by
division into separate academic disciplines and “the Centre.....sits towards the middle of a continuum
treating each with a ‘silver bullet’ peopled by between a purely science-driven agenda....and a purely
specialists in that narrow field. Science is seen as policy-driven agenda......The Centre will therefore
separate from values and cultural context. make creative use of this tension and orient itself
However, when the world faces such overarching towards a policy-relevant and scientifically-innovative
complex issues as climate change, it is argued that research agenda” [Tyndall Centre Research Strategy,
a new sort of science is needed. So-called ‘Post- p. 5]
Normal Science’ (Funtowicz & Ravetz, 1993;
Ravetz, 1999) is a label for issues where facts are
New Forms of Science and the Tyndall Centre
uncertain, values in dispute and the stakes are
high, and has been applied to different fields such Hunt & Shackley (1999) draw distinction between three
as ecological economics (Muller, 2003), food safety main types of knowledge. Traditional academic

Tyndall Briefing Note No. 9 December 2002

research is rigorous, deep and thoroughly rooted in
past research, based on peer review. It is also, 2. Practically resolve the tensions outlined above. The
mostly, independent – designed and carried out by Tyndall Centre was created to enhance capacity to deal
specialists it is free to reach whatever conclusions it with climate change, not just to do curiosity-driven
will. Two quite different types of research, research, and hence must be both academically
increasingly a major part of the policy process, are rigorous and policy useful. This raises significant time
fiducial and bureaucratic knowledge. Fiducial and resource issues, as the effort involved in continual
knowledge is produced as a service to users, and balancing of independence of research with frequent
although frequently the basis for policymaking, it is communication with outside organisations is large, as is
often not peer-reviewed – the status of the authors the practicality of communicating with many different
is the most important validation. Bureaucratic audiences. One important step is to persuade funding
knowledge actually involves the user in and supporting organisations to fully recognise non-
constructing the knowledge, which is generally a peer reviewed work, such as submissions to House of
synthesis for a specific group and contexts. This Commons Select Committees. A PhD on new forms of
synthesis is filtered – taken from approved sources, science and how these may work in practice would be a
judged by ’what works’ for particular political significant step towards understanding how this might
situations. Fiducial and bureaucratic knowledge are resolve.
often carried out by consultancies paid by those
whose policies will be affected by it: as such, the
work is driven by the funder with little opportunity Further Questions for Consideration
for researcher autonomy. These studies are often To stimulate further thought and discussion, here are
(especially by academics) seen as ’inferior’ to several open-ended questions for general debate:
academic research. However, this is often the
research which has most influence in the policy
process. The Tyndall Centre finds itself in the • In the longer term, how far are researchers willing
tension between these different approaches, with to go to change how research is done?
increasing pressure for academic research to be • How might these changes come about, and how
‘useful’ – either economically or politically relevant long will it take?
– and yet remain scientifically rigorous. • How do others perceive Tyndall’s approach, and
what do we need to do to respond to this?
A good example is the case of policy-related • Is academic research and all it represents losing
research which does not get published in academic influence in the policy process?
journals because of the nature of such research • What counts as ‘science’, and what ‘speculation’ or
(eg. it is not sufficiently novel but synthesises and ‘advocacy’?
presents existing research in a new way). The
• Do we stand on the edge of a major transformation
academic system thus has a tendency to set
of human thought, or is this the ‘End of History’
sometimes arbitrary or contestable boundaries
phenomenon – that every generation believes they
around itself as a source of its objective authority in
live at a hugely significant time?
the wider world. Another example is the process of
producing a PhD: as a matter of course, PhD • How can research be user driven and academically
students try to find a balance between policy rigorous in a world where quick results are needed
usefulness/new methods and the traditional cheaply, to the order of the funder? If a quick
demands of thesis production. consultancy scoping can give 75% of the necessary
insight, what point is there in an academic study
which will cost twice as much and take three times
Conclusion as long and produce perhaps only 10% more
If we recognise and are to address the post-normal insight? Can policy-relevant research ever be
nature of climate change research, we must do two something more than ‘consultancy’? Is this such a
things: bad thing?

1. Aim to integrate knowledge from a very wide Acknowledgements

range of sources, both academic and lay. The Thanks to all who participated in the discussion at the
values inherent in the decision-making process Tyndall Assembly 2003, especially Simon Shackley who
must be emphasised in integrated assessment chaired the discussion, and to those who provided
research. There is a need to build on traditional comments on this note.
science and modelling and broaden research into
issues such as the context, psychology, emotion
and morality behind decisions.

Tyndall Briefing Note No. 5 December 2003

REFERENCES
Bray, D.; von Storch, H. (1999) Climate science: An empirical example of postnormal science. Bulletin of the
American Meteorological Society 80 (3), pp. 439-455
Funtowicz, S.O.; Ravetz, J.R. (1993) Science for the post-normal age. Futures 25 (7) pp. 739-755
Hunt, J.; Shackley, S. (1999) Reconceiving science and policy: academic, fiducial and bureaucratic knowledge.
Minerva 37, pp. 141-164
Laugharne, R.; Laugharne, J. (2002) Psychiatry, postmodernism and postnormal science. Journal of the Royal
Society of Medicine 95 (4), pp. 207-210
Muller, A. (2003) A flower in full blossom? Ecological economics at the crossroads between normal and post-normal
science. Ecological Economics 45 (1), pp. 19-27
Ravetz, J.R. [ed.] (1999) Post-normal science. Futures 31 (7) Special issue pp. 641-757
Ravetz, J.R. (2002) Food safety, quality, and ethics - A post-normal perspective. Journal of Agricultural and
Environmental Ethics 15 (3), pp. 255-265
Saloranta, T.M. (2001) Post-normal science and the global climate change issue. Climatic Change 50 (4), pp. 395-
404
Sweeney, K.; Kernick, D. (2002) Clinical evaluation: constructing a new model for post-normal medicine. Journal
of Evaluation in Clinical Practice

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Tyndall Briefing Note No. 5 December 2003