PNS is in a region where decision stakes are high and uncertainty is high. It should be employed for wicked problems.

figure in Funtowicz and Ravetz 2003

When stakes or uncertainty are high, peer community is needed to evaluate the quality of the work.

core science (at the origin) - stakes, by definition are zero, because this is curiosity based and the experiments can be repeated to reduce uncertainty.

applied science -

professional consultancy - personal (professional) judgement required by "expert"

post-normal science

because post-normal science requires core, applied and consutancy, it is a science, not just the science of public envolvement (Funtowicz and Ravetz 1993)

post-normal science is complementary to consultancy and applied science - not a replacement

work is done in the glare of public scrutiny and potential losses by stakeholders

AIDS research for example

"In every age, science is shaped around its leading problems, and it evolves with them." (F&R 1993)

"ideal of rationality is no longer universally appropriate"

"The activity of science now encompasses the management of irreducible uncertainties in knowledge and ethics, adn the recognition of different legitimate perspectis and ways of knowing."

becoming mofre democratic

"Post-normal science has the paradoxical feature that in its problem-solving activity the traditional domination of 'hard facts' over 'soft values' has been inverted." (Funtowicz and Ravetz 1993)

because of the large degree of uncertainty and ignorance

quoted in Tognetti

Funtowicz and Ravetz [8] “Only when a new shared experience reveals the increasing inadequacies of an established worldview, does it become possible for a society to begin the lengthy and painful
task of philosophical reconstruction, always focused on the most pressing problems of practice.”

<! -- constructive ambiguity -->

“the pattern, which connects”, and provide the basis for abduction—a fundamental process
in human thought. Abduction is defined as a method of constructing knowledge
from consistencies in the evidence from multiple perspectives

<patterns>

Bateson’s rule that “two descriptions are better than one”

 

 

References:

Funtowicz, S. O., and J. R. Ravetz (1992). "The good, the true and the post-modern." Futures(December): 963-974.

Funtowicz, S. O., and J. R. Ravetz (1993). "Science for the post-modern age." Futures(September): 739 - 755.

Funtowicz, S. O., and J. R. Ravetz (2003). Post-Normal Science. International Society for Ecological Economics: Internet Encyclopaedia of Ecological Economics.

Tognetti, S. S. (1999). "Science in a double-bind: Gregory Bateson and the origins of post-normal science." Futures 31: 689-703.