Abstract
Exploring existing climate knowledge infrastructures as the important backbone of service endeavours, the authors analysed how climate knowledge infrastructures are organised, how (far) they take into account the ‘end user’, and how processes of data infrastructure governance function. Following these themes, we first catalogued and mapped relationships of organisations involved in the climate data infrastructure value chain and conducted interviews with representatives of some of the mapped organisations in order to corroborate the literature research and obtain additional insights. We suggest viewing climate service infrastructure in the four dimensions of instrumentation, information, communication, and service infrastructures. We argue that success or failure of climate services will be determined, firstly, by the ability to view and practically embed users as integral partners in the co-construction of climate services rather than treating them as ‘external factors’ (cross-boundary reflexivity). Secondly, we argue that it will be crucial for the growth of the climate service market, and therefore wider societal resilience to pay more attention to communication and service infrastructures intersecting. This may take in multiple ways with instrumentation and information infrastructures (infrastructural reflexivity) in the sense of a “value network” (not simply a value chain) given all the fluidity of the service infrastructure.
Highlights
In a knowledge-intensive economy (Felt et al, 2007), service provision, firstly, is a question of knowledge which allows for interaction and new links between disconnected areas and actors, e.g., commercial and public, science and user practice (Hipp and Grupp, 2005; European Commission, 2015, 3; Nightingale et al, 2015, 11; Street, 2016, 3; Perrels et al, in this issue)
It appears only logical to pay more attention to communication and service infrastructures intersecting in multiple ways with instrumentation and information infrastructures
Service Infrastructure (Serv-I): This refers to the socio-technical machinery of channels where the provision of climate services takes place; including the users, as they bring their sets of ideas about why and how they would use climate services; including the institutional and organisational structures as well as personnel needed for the service activities, and the technology into which service interaction is woven
Summary
In a knowledge-intensive economy (Felt et al, 2007), service provision, firstly, is a question of knowledge which allows for interaction and new links between disconnected areas and actors, e.g., commercial and public, science and user practice (Hipp and Grupp, 2005; European Commission, 2015, 3; Nightingale et al, 2015, 11; Street, 2016, 3; Perrels et al, in this issue). Reciprocal expectations, vested interests, and organisational commitments establish and stabilise systemic structures (Geels and Kemp, 2007) These interactions have a negotiation character and are leading to arrangements on which each follow-up service interaction can build. It appears only logical to pay more attention to communication and service infrastructures intersecting in multiple ways with instrumentation and information infrastructures This has consequences for the notions of ‘service’ and ‘infrastructure’ that we use in order to conceptualise climate services infrastructures. After a methodological note, we will first elaborate on the notions of ‘services’ and ‘infrastructures’ and thereby emphasise their relational character (Section 2) This means they can be conceived as being subject to ongoing negotiations and ordering efforts between socio-technical, political, scientific, and producer-user aspects. We conclude and provide an outlook on further research and governance needs (Section 6)
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