Exploring the use of climate information in practice

Abstract

The degree of use of climate information in city administrations has traditionally been attributed to factors about people, their embedding institutional contexts, as well as to particular facts about climate information. This dissertation argues that explaining the significance of use of climate information based on facts and factors ignores the social dimensions of usability: how social interactions, people’s agency and experiential knowledge and learning shape differences in usability outcomes. This dissertation addresses this conceptual gap by explaining the use of climate information as practice. Based on empirical evidence gathered in three case studies (the city administrations of Bilbao, Donostia/San Sebastian and Copenhagen) the research explains how the use of climate information occurs as a result of multiple practices coordinated and articulated in the context of work. The research brings to evidence how the use of climate information transpires in multiple constellations of practices (anchoring and enabling practices), and as a dynamic process of practice change which unfolds as actors learn by interacting with climate information and validate their practical knowledge with key stakeholders. The research shows that the use of climate information is judged by similar normative criteria that orient municipal work, while it also illustrates how usability depends on gaining legitimacy from actors operating in political, strategic and operational arenas. The use of climate information is evidenced as an outcome of people’s decisions and interactions in a working context, shedding light on people’s agency and recognising that what people do, matters with regard to the outcomes of usability. This dissertation presents a novel perspective on usability which centres on the social dimensions of the use of climate information. By shedding light on the connection between working practices and the use of climate information, and by explaining how municipal and usability practices change, the findings emerging from this research can inform ex-ante assessments to identify pre-conditions of usability in city administrations, as well as be applicable to undertake ex-post assessments about the impact of climate information in cities.