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Publications
The ULYSSES voyage: The ULYSSES project at the JRC
Author(s):
DE MARCHI B (ISIG, Gorizia (IT)), FUNTOWICZ S (JRC Ispra (IT)), GOUGH C (JRC Ispra (IT)), GUIMARÃES PEREIRA A (JRC Ispra (IT)), ROTA E (JRC Ispra (IT))
Published in:
EUR 17760 EN (1998) 188pp., free of charge, 1998, Page(s) 188
Exploitable results
Briquettes mainly consisting of artificial diamond have been produced by powder metallurgy techniques and are fitted onto polishing wheels.
This technology involves the production of improved wear resistant materials for polishing ornamental stones. Briquettes mainly consisting of artificial diamond have been produced by powder metallurgy techniques and are fitted onto polishing wheels.
Description of the specialization of the organization:
Producer of stone cutting and polishing tools
The European research project ULYSSES aims to bridge the gap between enviromental science and democratic policy making in the climate domain. For this we study judgements of informed citizens on climate policy and make these judgements availiable to policy makers. As a support in this process the citizens will be given access to state of the art computer models on enviromental change.
Between 1996 and 1999 ULYSSES conducts and analyses group discussions with citizens in Barcelona, Venice, Zurich, Frankfurt, Manchester and Stockholm.
Objective
Policy makers dealing with complex enviromental problems need knowledge from enviromental science as well as from the social sciences to back up their decisions. Integrated Assessment (IA) research aims at providing useful overviews of possible solutions for this purpose. In this context ULYSSES - short for Urban Lifestyles, Sustainablilty and Integrated Enviromental Assessment develops procedures for including public participation in IA.
Science can provide neither unique descriptions nor unique solutions for truly complex enviromental problems. On the other hand citizens are used to deal with a variety of conflicting yet legitimate interpretations in democracy which is basically government by public debate. In this situation assessments can improve both in quality and in political relevance by combining expert knowledge with public partcipation.
Methodology
In order to develop a procedure for public participation in Intergrated Assessment ULYSSES designs a deliberative process which is based on the focus group method. In kind a kind of microcosm of social learning small groups of citizens share a moderated discussion on climate risks and options for climate policy. These IA-Focus Groups meet approximately five times. They debate on climate policy, have access to relevant information to support their debates , and express their resulting judgement. The range of arguments and judgements expressed by the citizens will then be condensed and made availiable to interested decision makers. One of the basic tasks of ULYSSES is to design an interface between these IA- Focus Groups and computer models. Our hypothesis is that citizens can arrive at reasonable and informed judgements on enviromental policy if they have the opportunity to share an in-depth debate and if they are provided with relevant information in a suitable format. For this information the IA-Focus Groups organized by ULYSSES have access to state of the art computer models relevant for decision support on enviromental issues. These models include IMAGE ( the Integrated Model to Assess the Greenhouse Effect), TARGET (the TOOL for Analysing Regional and Global Enviromental and Health Targets for Sustainability), Polestar, and NAIADE (the Novel Approach to Imprecise Accessment and Decision Enviroments). ULYSSES tests this IA-Focus Group procedure in the domain of urban lifestyles and their connection to climate change. In order to experience the cultural diversity within Europe in our experiments we conduct IA-Focus Groups in urban regions throughout Europe: Barcelona, Venice, Athens, Zurich, Frankfurt(Rhine/Main), Manchester and Stockholm.
Summary :
IA-Focus Groups are a participatory technique for including citizens in environmental assessments. This technique should be relevant for public administrations and private corporations who want to lead a dialogue with their constituency or customers about environmental aspects of their activities.
IA-Focus Groups were designed and tested in the context of climate change and energy use issues. They consisted of five discussion sessions per group. The citizens participating in the groups were given access to scientific assessments of climate and energy issues in the form of computer models or results of such modelling exercises. At the end of this five session process, the citizens formulated their assessment of the problem and of related policy options.
The IA-Focus Group method developed within the project could easily be adapted to other topics as well. For less complex issues, the procedure consisting of five discussion sessions with citizens could be simplified, making such applications less time consuming and less costly. An electronic web-based tutorial, accessible via the project website (www.zit.tu-darmstadt.de/ulysses) after the end of the project, makes this technique easy to use by third parties.
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