engleski

Zoonotic Crises and Climate Change Mitigation: Croatian Scientists’ Narratives on Societal Futures

This paper deals with narratives and constructions of societal futures related to the climate change and Covid-19 pandemic crises as described and imagined by Croatian scientists of different disciplinary backgrounds. By societal futures we perceive futures of societies in general but also futures of science and technology specifically. Our framework is in the domain of sociology of expectations, which is in social studies of science often seen as a key element of understanding of scientific and technological change. In turn, scientific and technological change is a key factor in future development of society's relationship toward climate change and zoonotic diseases. As Borup et al. (2006) argue, the main reason for this is because expectations frequently serve to bridge or mediate across different boundaries and otherwise distinct (though overlapping) dimensions and levels, they link technical and social issues, because expectations and visions refer to images of the future, where technical and social aspects are tightly intertwined. Also, expectations constitute ‘the missing link’ between the inner and outer worlds of techno-scientific knowledge communities and fields. This paper analyses data from the interviews with 12 Croatian scientists whose main research interest is related to climate change mitigation/adaptation or to zoonotic diseases. Main topic of the interview was their perception of science and technology in the times of crises, with the significant part of the interview dedicated to the futures, societal and science and technology expectations. Based on their narratives, and in connection with their disciplinary - cognitive backgrounds, we discuss the potential of the experiences with the pandemic crisis for the future of science and technology in the context of climate change mitigation.

zoonotic crisis, climate change, scientist's naratives, naratives about future

nije evidentirano