COM455, Spring 2013
Science and Communication in a Century of Limits
Phone: 401-874-2970 | Fax: 401-874-4722 | Email: mayfly@uri.edu | Teaching and Office Hours
CATALOG DESCRIPTION
Communication of scientific observations and projections of global resource and environmental limits is focussed on persuading formation of publics and social movements needed for widespread action in the 21st century.
COURSE GOALS
We study the science, economics, and communications of climate change; fossil fuel depletion; soil loss; water crises; future food, forests and fisheries; exhaustion of mined ores and minerals; and planetary-scale pollution. We see how scientists observe, reason, and deal with uncertainties, how science is communicated or distorted, and how communications may be used to improve politics and promote effective governance.
PREREQUISITES
Senior or graduate students with varied backgrounds in science and communications. Readings and lectures address knowledge and philosophy, preparing us to focus on how science is conveyed, effectively or not, from science discourse communities to the public. Be prepared for substantial reading and reflective writing. This is an advanced course with high expectations for scholarship.
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Students will be better able to
- articulate the nature of challenges from climate change, peak oil, water shortages, etc.
- explain factors inhibiting the scientific community from engaging the public to create critical awareness
- prescribe appropriate public policy, altered private enterprise, and changed individual behaviors
- analyze why the reasoning, skepticism, and rhetoric of scientific discourse communities fails to motivate adequate public response on a planetary scale
- diagnose and remedy abuses of pseudo-scientific contrarianism or systematic distortion of science.
TEXTS
- Richard Heinberg, Daniel Lerch, editors. 2010. The Post Carbon Reader: Managing the 21st Century's Sustainability Crises. Univ. California Pr. 552 p.
- Patrick Logan. 2011. Science and Communications for a Century of Limits: Online lecture notes.
FORMAT & GRADING
Two weekly classes, a mix of lecture and discussion, focused on analysis of assigned readings. This course is reading and writing intensive; there will be three 2-4 page book critiques, a journal, and a final paper. Grades are also influenced by degree and quality of participation.
SCHEDULE (Spring, 2013) | TTh 3:30-4:45, 222 Crawford Hall
Course Theme, Topics, Lecture Titles: The central theme of the course is a study of scientific communication and deliberate distortion (miscommunication) of science.
This theme is divided into three topics:
- Science Culture and Communication Within Discourse Communities: What is science telling us and how does it communicate?
- Systematic Distortion of Science In the Public Sphere: How do ideologically driven politicians and self-serving corporations deny the science or human origin of climate change or of other critical resource limits that will affect civilization in this century by regularly misstating or otherwise lying about science and its implications?
- Scientific Credibility, Importance, and Rhetoric: How can science be communicated more effectively to motivate social movements?
The central theme and topics are illustrated by problems from a spectrum of twenty-first century global significance: climate change; energy production peaks; and the conflict between human population growth and limits on future production of food, water, and natural resources.
Lecture and Discussion Schedule (Spring, 2013—Tues & Thurs, 3:30-4:45, 222 Crawford)
Classes end Apr. 30.