Session 2.2
Understanding how climate information comes to matter. A dialogue on mutual learning about the role of co-production in urban climate governance in the cities of São Paulo and Hamburg
Laura Schmidt 1, Marcela da S. Feital 2
1 Climate Service Center Germany (GERICS), Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Hamburg, Germany; 2 São Paulo, Brazil
Cities worldwide are both key contributor to and severely affected by climate change. In consequence, urban governance is considered to play a key role with regard to climate change mitigation and adaptation. While transdisciplinarity is advanced as instrumental approach to facilitate climate action and the co-production of climate services, the well-known science-policy gap widely persists. In our research, we aim to better understand and make aware of the complex dynamics in a multi-level governance context that eventually give meaning to climate facts. We explore the question, how the local context with its institutional, socio-cultural and material particularities affect the co-production and use of climate information in urban decision-making. Empirically, we analyse and compare the cities of São Paulo and Hamburg as case studies by looking at different governance arrangements (city-wide level, district level, and living labs) where the collaboration between science and policy happened to varying degrees. Through interviews and document analysis, we aim to reveal how perceptions of climate change, the use of scientific information and realisation of knowledge co-production shift over time and in relation to the different institutional or collaborative settings and, consequently, affect urban climate decision-making. The research aims to stimulate learning processes among and between researchers and city actors, as well as between the two cities in the Global South and Global North.
In our podcast-style video presentation, we aim to specifically illustrate and reflect on our personal learning process while engaging with the case studies. We – a sociologist from Brazil working on the case of São Paulo and a Geographer from Germany responsible for the case study in Hamburg – picture our ordinary online dialogue discussing our insights, thoughts and worries in the research process. Such digital dialogues, although not without facing structural challenges in the South-North context, represented the key moments of mutual learning in our research, as the pandemic also affected our project and prevented any possibility to meet and discuss in “real life”. We will present, how our different disciplinary education and socialisation, as well as the individual insights from a systematic literature review and engaging with the case studies has led to different findings and assessments, and how our regular exchange on these insights has triggered mutual understanding and learning. Through these mutual insights, we increasingly understood how the local context with its specific practices, norms, narratives and framings affect climate-related activities and the use of climate information in decision-making. We will specifically highlight our recurring discussion on the role of social sciences in transdisciplinary climate research and how the analytical lens of co-production helped us to better understand the role of knowledge co-production in urban climate governance. In conclusion, our presented dialogue aims to picture the value of virtual exchange for learning across disciplinary and cultural divides, which in our case considerably contributed to better understand that and how institutional and socio-cultural factors matter when designing knowledge co-production in cities. We close our presentation with some questions to the audience aiming for a critical feedback and reflection of our insights.
Looking at the intersection of the housing and the climate crises in Boston, MA: a transdisciplinary approach
Patricio Belloy 1 & 2, Sajani Kandel 3
1 McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, University of Massachusetts Boston; 2 Institute of Economics & Transdisciplinary Center for Environmental Studies, Austral University of Chile; 3 School for the Environment, University of Massachusetts Boston
Our team at the University of Massachusetts Boston has undertaken a multi-year research project that studies the complex and socially relevant intersection of urban housing affordability and climate change. Although urban housing challenges have received increased attention over last few decades, the potentially exacerbated effects from the intersection of these crises remain under-recognized and under-researched. On the housing crisis front, there has been efforts by communities, advocates, and engaged scholars and policymakers to design and implement innovative policy solutions in the Greater Boston Area. However, with increasing economic growth and inequality, the region maintains alarming levels of housing instability, displacement, and overcrowding of families living in hazardous conditions, particularly among low-income people of color. On the climate change front, projections regarding the intensity and frequency of various climate impacts in the region anticipate worsening conditions for affordable housing availability and livability. Despite local public efforts to address climate hazards and vulnerabilities, like the Climate Ready Boston initiative (City of Boston, 2016), the city has become an example of climate resilience privatization, where actions tend to focus on property protection and economic growth agendas, failing to meaningfully involve vulnerable communities in the policy process.
Our qualitative study is informed by different sources, including a community town hall, interviews and a seminar with advocates and policymakers. Initial findings highlight that place-based knowledge drawn from the lived experience of residents provides key insights into perceived risk associated with construction and location, adaptation of housing to different cultural lifestyles, and on the value of safe and stable housing for the wellbeing of families. Consequently, it has informed advantages and drawbacks of policy instruments targeting this compound crisis.
In light of these findings, this paper calls for an integrated, transdisciplinary approach to the intersection of the housing and climate crises. Instead of primarily relying on specialization and knowledge fragmentation to understand the phenomena, the approach steers the use of technical disciplines and focuses solutions on citizen-informed, value-driven strategies. We suggest structuring expert and traditional co-produced knowledge within the transdisciplinary pyramid of inquiry provided by Manfred Max-Neef (2005) and inspired by the disciplinary levels suggested by Jantsch (1972). The pyramid will be used to organize knowledge about the housing and climate crises in the hierarchical system, composed of empirical, pragmatic, normative, and value disciplinary levels. The Gaziulusoy and Boyle (2012) model will be used in tandem to link disciplinary levels of the pyramid into three levels of knowledge –systems, target, and transformation (Hirsch Hadorn et al., 2006)– and to determine existing system knowledge and target knowledge to be generated throughout the research project. The aim is to generate transformative knowledge that helps us understand the extent of the intersection and ways to access target knowledge to support the design and implementation of policies and plans addressing this joint crisis.
City of Boston. (2016). Climate Ready Boston: Final Report. https://www.greenribboncommission.org/document/climate-ready-boston-report/
Gaziulusoy, A. I., & Boyle, C. (2013). Proposing a heuristic reflective tool for reviewing literature in transdisciplinary research for sustainability. Journal of Cleaner Production, 48, 139-147.
Hadorn, G. H., Bradley, D., Pohl, C., Rist, S., & Wiesmann, U. (2006). Implications of transdisciplinarity for sustainability research. Ecological economics, 60(1), 119-128.
Jantsch, E., 1972. Towards Interdisciplinarity and transdisciplinarity in education and innovation. In: Apostel, L. (Ed.), Interdisciplinarity: Problems of Teaching and Research in Universities. OECD, Paris, pp. 97-121.
Max-Neef, M. A. (2005). Foundations of transdisciplinarity. Ecological economics, 53(1), 5-16.
Towards a co-design of adaptation measures to heat events in cities: examples from Heidelberg, Germany
Kathrin Foshag, Nicole Aeschbach
Heidelberg University, Germany
As one of the impacts of climate change, Heidelberg (Germany), like many other cities, is facing an increase in the frequency and intensity of heat waves. Extreme temperatures endanger human well-being and health. In particular, vulnerable demographic groups such as seniors, people with pre-existing conditions, and young children are negatively affected. Based on current inter- and transdisciplinary projects, our conference contribution provides reflective insights into our approaches to co-design appropriate adaptation measures to mitigate the impacts of heat waves in public spaces. The multidimensional concept aims at considering the interrelated scientific, social, and practical aspects.
The approach was developed in a pilot study (Foshag et al., 2020) and will be applied and significantly advanced in the project “HEAL – Heat adaptation for vulnerable population groups” starting mid-2021. In a short video-clip we present the concept, the results and the evaluation of the pilot study and discuss the integration of the outcome into the HEAL project. The video critically reflects on the progress and hurdles of the studies and takes the viewer on a virtual tour to the research sites in Heidelberg.
The design of the pilot study combines physical measurements, solar modelling, and public perception surveys to an integrated set of methods.Considering the complexity of challenges and diversity of perspectives of relevant stakeholders and user groups, the data set aims to develop practical solutions and advances basic research on climate change adaptation. The study shows what added value transdisciplinary approaches offer, what potential they have and thus describes a holistic approach supported by local stakeholders. While the focus of the pilot study was on the development of adaptation measures at the urban planning level, the HEAL project also addresses the individual level.
In the HEAL project, we aim at implementing the transdisciplinary design by involving affected groups of people (seniors, people with pre-existing conditions, families with young children) and the organized civil society (senior citizens' clubs, family networks). In addition to information and adaptation concepts on heat stress in general, the project’s goal is to develop strategies to support and ensure everyday life and the mobility in the city even under extreme temperatures. To this end, the project will use real-time sensor data to identify and model areas of increased heat stress. Based on the sensor data and existing climate analysis maps, statistical prediction models will be developed. The results are to be incorporated into a navigation along shaded routes to enable heat-stress-adapted mobility. The information obtained will be processed and made available via an application and analogue and digital information services and maps.
Foshag, K., Aeschbach, N., Höfle, B., Winkler, R., Siegmund, A., & Aeschbach, W. (2020). Viability of public spaces in cities under increasing heat: A transdisciplinary approach. Sustainable Cities and Society, 59, 102215. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102215