tailieunhanh - MULTI - SCALE INTEGRATED ANALYSIS OF AGROECOSYSTEMS - CHAPTER 4

4 The New Terms of Reference for Science for Governance: Postnormal Science This chapter addresses the epistemological implications of complexity. In fact, according to what has been discussed so far, hard science, when operating within the reductionist paradigm, is not able to handle in a useful way the set of relevant perceptions and representations of the reality used by interacting agents, which are operating on different scales. No matter how complicated, individual mathematical models cannot be used to represent changes on a multi-scale, multiobjective performance space. To make things worse, it must be acknowledged that there are two relevant dimensions in the. | 4 The New Terms of Reference for Science for Governance Postnormal Science This chapter addresses the epistemological implications of complexity. In fact according to what has been discussed so far hard science when operating within the reductionist paradigm is not able to handle in a useful way the set of relevant perceptions and representations of the reality used by interacting agents which are operating on different scales. No matter how complicated individual mathematical models cannot be used to represent changes on a multi-scale multiobjective performance space. To make things worse it must be acknowledged that there are two relevant dimensions in the discussion about science for governance one related to the descriptive side the ability to represent the effect of changes in different descriptive domains by using an appropriate set of indicators and one related to the normative side the ability to reach an agreement on the individuation of an advisable policy to be implemented in the face of contrasting values and perspectives .As noted in Chapters 2 and 3 these two dimensions are only apparently separated since due to the epistemological implications discussed so far even when operating within the descriptive domain there are a lot of decisions that are heavily affected by power asymmetry. Who decides how to simplify the complexity of the reality Who decides whose perceptions are the ones to be included in the analysis Who chooses the appropriate language relevant issues and significant proofs Put another way the very definition of a problem structuring how to describe the problem entails a clear bias for the normative step. The reverse is also obviously true policies are determined by the agreed-upon perceptions of costs benefits and risks of potential options . In conclusion the issue of science for governance requires addressing the issue of how to generate procedures that can be used to perform multi-agent negotiations aimed at getting compromise .