Climate Science Communication – Global and local NGO-science networks

Globally, nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) play a central role in communicating evidence about causes and effects of climate change and in promoting possible strategies to prevent it. They translate knowledge from a global to a local level and vice versa and maintain networks with numerous organisational, public, and civil stakeholders. By doing so, they strive to contribute to finding local solutions and drive international approaches. It can be expected that NGOs reach different, and possibly broader, audiences than scientists. Based on an understanding of science communication as a network of actors in which scientific information is distributed and processed, the project focusses on cooperations, interactions and networks between NGOs and scientists to understand how they impact communication strategies and research agendas. It aims to understand the impact of (trans)national, organisational, and local contexts on NGO-science cooperations in the field of climate change. Objects of investigation are networks of scientists and national as well as transnational NGOs in Germany and South Africa. In a qualitative multi-method design, research will focus on the strategies, formats, interaction patterns, and expected outcomes of NGO-science communication networks.