Information

Organized by Anna Leuschner (ITAS) and Laszlo Kosolosky (Ghent University), supported by Torsten Wilholt (Leibniz-Universität Hannover) and Justin Biddle (Georgia Institute of Technology)

Conference Website: https://mdcs2015.wordpress.com/

Topic and aim

The workshop addresses the epistemic value of dissent in science, particularly in climate science. While agnotology and other science studies have commenced to explore that politica land industrial stakeholders have manufactured dissent on (anthropogenic) climate change, it is still largely unclear whether such dissent is epistemically detrimental or whether it can be, in particular cases, fruitful for the advancement of climate science.

Contributors are expected to focus on (at least) one of the three questions addressed in the workshop:

• Investigating whether dissent is sometimes instrumentalized to prevent the generation of knowledge and, if so, how we can distinguish such cases from epistemically fruitful dissent.
• Finding out in what way climate science is influenced in its working procedures by manufactured dissent.
• Exploring how the public, politics, and science itself should respond to the manufacture of dissent.

It is envisaged to publish a conference volume.

Keynote Speakers

• Justin Biddle (Georgia Institute of Techology, USA)
• Inmaculada de Melo-Martín (Weill Cornell Medical College, USA)
• Kristen Intemann (Montana State University, USA)
• Elisabeth Lloyd (Indiana University, USA)
• Alfred Moore (University of Cambridge, England)
• Torsten Wilholt (Leibniz University, Germany)

Call for papers

There are 3 slots assigned for speakers providing an abstract (max. 500 words) until 22 July 2015. Please send your abstract prepared for blind review as an e-mail attachment (.doc, .docx or .pdf) to frederike.neuber∂kit.edu.

Notification of acceptance: 1 August 2015

Contact

If you have any questions regarding the conference please do not hesitate to contact: Anna Leuschner or Laszlo Kosolosky