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SUMMARY:Doing science differently?: the case of flood risk modelling
DTSTART:20090302T161500
DTSTAMP:20260916T043405Z
UID:7a3430928032bf399043a76792f1cc1568e001b61fcf0f796ee58ba5
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Prof. Stuart Lane\,  Durham University\nModels represent a pec
 uliar form of scientific knowledge because their primary raison d'etre res
 ts in the difficulties of acquiring certain sorts of understandings throug
 h conventional scientific practice (e.g. measurement). Indeed\, models are
  commonly seen as sets of mathematically-encoded theoretical statements wh
 ich\, when combined with additional auxiliary information\, allow statemen
 ts to be made about things that have not been observed (e.g. future flood 
 risk). The tension arises between models as research tools\, to be disprov
 ed or shown as wrong\, and models in practice\, aa policy tools necessary 
 to help get decisions right. Flood risk modelling represents a particular 
 severe example of this tension because it is an increasingly public practi
 ce\, one which has opened up to scrutiny the predictions of flood risk mod
 els by a community for whom flood risk modelling makes a material differen
 ce: those who live with flood risk\; ordinary people. In this presentation
 \, I will show how conventional models for the practice of science fail in
  such situations where the science becomes public and\, in some cases\, co
 ntroversial. Those who live with flood risk can\, in many cases\, posess e
 xpert knowledge of the sort that is normally made inadmissible to the rout
 ine practice of scientific enquiry. Rather than being seen as an integral 
 part of scientific practice\, they are excluded from this practice\, only 
 to be brought back in\, to be educated and persuaded as to the validity of
  the work that has been done. I will show how this approach is fundamental
 ly flawed\, advocating the need to move towards a much more radical form o
 f scientific practice in which trust in flood risk models can only be gain
 ed through the active involvement in the research process of thise who hav
 e to live with flood risk.
LOCATION:GR B30
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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