{"id":4351,"date":"2026-04-29T17:00:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T17:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/?p=4351"},"modified":"2026-04-29T18:40:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T18:40:59","slug":"beyond-the-deficit-co-producing-climate-futures-through-civic-science-arts-and-agricultural-dialogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/?p=4351","title":{"rendered":"Beyond the Deficit: Co-Producing Climate Futures through Civic Science, Arts, and Agricultural Dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Universities increasingly seek public engagement on climate change, yet many initiatives rely on the flawed &#8220;information deficit&#8221; model, assuming one-way knowledge transfer drives action. This project proposes a replicable engagement architecture that replaces passive communication with epistemic partnership. Through structured, bidirectional feedback between academia and society, public input reshapes research priorities, artistic collaboration generates new knowledge forms, and civic engagement with farmers, NGOs, and communities co\u2011produces climate\u2011futures pathways.<\/p>\n<p>Current practice reveals four critical gaps:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Quality over quantity: engagement is measured by attendance rather than participants inputs for models.<\/li>\n<li>The accountability: few mechanisms show how public feedback influences scientific work.<\/li>\n<li>Disconnected outcomes: changes in public opinion rarely translate into changes in scientific assumptions.<\/li>\n<li>Instrumental use of arts: museum formats are treated as communication tools rather than data\u2011gathering environments.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The project addresses these gaps through three nodes:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Arts\/Museum: Partnerships with regional museums turn exhibitions into active data\u2011collection spaces, where workshops and climate\u2011art installations capture civic values, risks, and priorities.<\/li>\n<li>Agricultural: a permanent, symmetrical data exchange with regional farmers grounds climate research in lived constraints. Farmer-scientist dialogues identify adaptation limits, validate local data, and surface feasibility conditions often absent from academic modelling.<\/li>\n<li>University Public Dialogues: Existing formats are redesigned using deliberative question engines that prompt citizens to generate structured research inputs rather than passively consume expert lectures.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The system uses a closed feedback architecture in which participants generate structured inputs across all nodes, and the university transparently reports how each contribution is used, embedding accountability and co\u2011production into existing institutional formats and shifting the paradigm from informing the public to demonstrating how the public shapes climate futures.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Keywords:<\/strong> Co-production, University-Community Partnership, Bidirectional Communication, Civic Science<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Selected References<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chilvers, J. (2024). Remaking public engagement with climate change. Dialogues on Climate Change, 1(1), 49\u201355. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/29768659241293224\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/29768659241293224<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Dillon, J., Stevenson, R. B., &amp; Wals, A. E. J. (2016). Introduction to the special section Moving from Citizen to Civic Science to Address Wicked Conservation Problems. Corrected by erratum 12844. Conservation Biology, 30(3), 450\u2013455. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/cobi.12689\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1111\/cobi.12689<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Kasumovic, M. (2025). From observation to understanding: Embedding artistic practice for more effective climate research. Dru\u017eboslovne Razprave, 41(110), 139\u2013163. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.51936\/dr.41.110.139-163\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.51936\/dr.41.110.139-163<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Leal Filho, W. (2010). Universities and Climate Change, 283 p. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-642-10751-1\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1007\/978-3-642-10751-1<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Leal Filho, W., Weissenberger, S., Luetz, J. M., Sierra, J., Simon Rampasso, I., Sharifi, A., \u2026 Kovaleva, M. (2023). Towards a greater engagement of universities in addressing climate change challenges. Scientific Reports, 13(1). <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41598-023-45866-x\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1038\/s41598-023-45866-x<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Nisbet, M. C., Hixon, M. A., Moore, K. D., &amp; Nelson, M. (2010, August). Four cultures: New synergies for engaging society on climate change. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1890\/1540-9295-8.6.329\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1890\/1540-9295-8.6.329<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sturgis, P., &amp; Allum, N. (2004). Science in Society: Re-Evaluating the Deficit Model of Public Attitudes. Public Understanding of Science, 13(1), 55-74. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/0963662504042690\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/09636625040426<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Star, S. L., &amp; Griesemer, J. R. (1989). Institutional Ecology, \u2018Translations\u2019 and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley\u2019s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907\u201339. Social Studies of Science, 19(3), 387\u2013420. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/030631289019003001\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1177\/030631289019003001<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Examples:<\/p>\n<p>Kiel Museum Night <a href=\"https:\/\/www.museumsnacht-kiel.de\/\">https:\/\/www.museumsnacht-kiel.de\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Night of the Profs \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uni-kiel.de\/de\/veranstaltungen\/night-of-the-profs\">https:\/\/www.uni-kiel.de\/de\/veranstaltungen\/night-of-the-profs<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cliccs.uni-hamburg.de\/press\/dialogue\/art-science.html\">&#8220;Portraits of Climate&#8221; \u00a0Exhibition (November 7, 2024 \u2013 April 30, 2025) The transfer project<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Rent-a-Scientist 2026 funded by the European Union under the HORIZON EUROPE framework programme is free service for school classes to have a scientist design a lesson on a specific topic: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wissenschafftzukunft-kiel.de\/de\/science_summer\/rent-a-scientist.php\">https:\/\/www.wissenschafftzukunft-kiel.de\/de\/science_summer\/rent-a-scientist.php<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Rent-a-Science-Film initiative is a free offer for teachers to watch a film in a scientific context related to nature or marine research with their students and then work on it afterwards: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wissenschafftzukunft-kiel.de\/de\/science_summer\/rent_a_science_film.php\">https:\/\/www.wissenschafftzukunft-kiel.de\/de\/science_summer\/rent_a_science_film.php<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Scientists for Future (S4F, also Scientists4Future) is a non-institutional, non-partisan, interdisciplinary association of scientists committed to a sustainable future: <a href=\"https:\/\/scientists4future.org\/\">https:\/\/scientists4future.org\/<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/info-de.scientists4future.org\/\">https:\/\/info-de.scientists4future.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Medina-Garc\u00eda C, Nagarajan S and Van den Broeck P (2022) The Leuven Gymkhana: Transdisciplinary Action Research Questioning Socially Innovative Multi-Actor Collaborations in COVID Times. Front. Sustain. Food Syst. 6:746974. doi: 10.3389\/fsufs.2022.746974<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Universities increasingly seek public engagement on climate change, yet many initiatives rely on the flawed &#8220;information deficit&#8221; model, assuming one-way knowledge transfer drives action. This project proposes a replicable engagement architecture that replaces passive communication with epistemic partnership. Through structured, bidirectional feedback between academia and society, public input reshapes research priorities, artistic collaboration generates new<a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/?p=4351\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">&#8220;Beyond the Deficit: Co-Producing Climate Futures through Civic Science, Arts, and Agricultural Dialogue&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[257,260,258,103],"tags":[266,265,268,267],"class_list":["post-4351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-post-2026","category-desired-climate-futures-2026","category-first-poster-ideas-2026","category-students-blog-post","tag-civic-science","tag-co-production","tag-participatory-science","tag-university-community-partnership"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/209"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4351"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4368,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4351\/revisions\/4368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uncertain2degrees.blogs.uni-hamburg.de\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}