“Post Normal Science – perspectives & prospectives”

A reflective workshop: 26-27^th June 2009: Oxford

On the occasion of the 80^th birthday of Jerry Ravetz, this workshop aims to review some ‘perspectives and prospectives’ on Post Normal Science.

When we first thought of this workshop, we imagined that a couple of dozen old and new friends would congregate and see what has been going on with PNS.  We were surprised and gratified to discover a much broader interest, to the point where we have to cut off attendance at the 50 mark.  As a result, we have been required to become somewhat more formal in our organisation.

 In particular, we want to accommodate all those who wish (or need) to present a paper, while still keeping the atmosphere of a workshop and not a subject-specialty convention. There is a range of breakout rooms, enough for everyone who wants to present a paper, or other kind of contribution.

We have an agreement with the editor of Futures to have a special issue with six papers from the workshop.  If there are more papers that can appropriately be published under the rubric of the workshop, then we could approach another journal for a special issue. Other papers and contributions will go on the PNS website.

The materials here will be updated until the workshop.

To contribute a paper, abstract, title or any other contribution for the workshop, please email with cc to: 

To: ”Joe Ravetz” Joe.ravetz@manchester.ac.uk

cc: "Jeroen P. van der Sluijs" <j.p.vandersluijs@uu.nl>

Location & accomodation Note – change of location to St Anne’s College (20 minutes walk from the rail station): St Anne’s College (the Ruth Deech conference centre is the first building on the left from the main entrance) Woodstock Rd Oxford, OX2 6HS, UK +44 1865 274800 www.st-annes.ox.ac.uk

• Accommodation is available on site. We have assumed some approximate numbers for planning:   25^th – 10 rooms: 26^th – 25 rooms: 27^th – 10 rooms.
• For early arrivals on 25^th, only wash-basin (non-ensuite) rooms are available.
• For the other two nights we have assumed that guests will prefer ensuite single rooms.
• Twin / family rooms are available at approx 1.5x the cost of a single.
• Early confirmations will be very helpful. There is a cut-off for bookings 14 days before the event (i.e. late cancellations will need to be charged after that date).
• The admin is on a volunteer basis with zero margin of error… so your cooperation will be essential.

Payment

As St Annes works on a single invoice, I am funding the whole event cost upfront (except for the reception & dinner on 26^th which is kindly sponsored by ISIS).

So your help and cooperation is needed to ensure payment is made, before or on arrival at the latest. There are 3 methods:

• Paypal transfer to joe.ravetz@gmail.com . This is very simple, and suitable for different currencies, but there is a small fee. Register on www.paypal.com with a credit card: then go to ‘Send money’ menu and select the ‘services’ and ‘personal transfer’ options.
• £GBP cheque to Joe Ravetz Associates,
• or £GBP in cash.

Invoices can be supplied on request.  Joe Ravetz Associates is non-VAT-registered.

The rates are as follows (all at cost price assuming 45 participants)

Downloads

Programme Version 0.6 (updated 12 June 2009)

Oxford College Map

St Annes conference brochure

Notes on accomodation

Registration form

–        IMPORTANT – if you didn’t already do so, please download this and return your details to joe.ravetz@manchester.ac.uk as soon as possible.

–        your help and cooperation is needed to ensure payment is made, before or on arrival at the latest. Payment can be either by Paypal, cheque or cash

Abstracts & titles version 0.61 (updated 12 June 2009)

Papers & drafts:

• James Risbey: Hardly ever right: climatology, climate models, and climate change
• Bev France, How Post-Normal views of science have contributed to a model of communication about biotechnology.
• Jeff Howard's text for Ravetz workshop.
• Ruth Beilin and Helena Bender Interruption, interrogation, integration and interaction as process: how PNS informs interdisciplinary curriculum design
• Colin Hannaford: GIVING PEACE A VOICE
• Hannaford Briefing Paper: The Socratic Methodology
  
• Petersen, Hage Cath and Van der Sluijs, Post-Normal Science in Practice at the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency
• Van der Sluijs e.a. Exploring the quality of evidence for complex and contested policy decisions
  - alternative link (without password)
• Katharine N. Farrell, The Politics of Science and Sustainable Development: Marcuse’s New Science in the 21st Century
• Maria Hage et al., Stakeholder participation in environmental knowledge production
• John Robinson and Alberto Cayuela, Plate-spinning and other Strategies: Creating the Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability (CIRS)
• John Robinson e.a., Envisioning sustainability pathways: Recent progress in the use of participatory backcasting approaches for sustainability research
• Philip Tattersall, What is community based auditing and how does it work? (new version posted 8 June 09)
• Hans von Storch, Climate Research and Policy Advice: Scientific and Cultural Constructions of Knowledge
• AngelaWilkinson and Esther Eidinow, Evolving practices in environmental scenarios: a new scenario typology

Powerpoints

• Jerry Ravetz, Whither Post-Normal Science?
• Jerry Ravetz, Background to Post-Normal Science
• Jeroen van der Sluijs, Knowledge Quality Assessment: a key task in the science-society interface
• Karen Kastenhofer, Current Challenges to Post-Normal Science Assessing the Risks and Safety of Agri-Biotechnology & Mobile Phones
• Bev France, How Post-Normal views of science have contributed to a model of communication about biotechnology.
• Stephen Healy, Interrogating the ‘Normal’ in PNS
• Joe Ravetz, When do known unknowns become unknown knowns
• David Brazier, Building Trust with Communities

Cartoons