Paths of Scientific Reasoning in the public debate on Climate Change. The Uncertainty of the Knowledge (UNKNOWNPATH)

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In the context of ecological and societal transition scientists, scientific knowledge, scientific analysis enter the public debate and coexist as dialogue partners with the more traditional participants in the public sphere. This shift came with a number of unexpected effects: fake news, disinformation, misinformation, and loss of trust from the public. This project focuses on the shift of climate related technological applications become social issues in the context of public debates.

climate change, controversy, scientific expertise, public sphere

Objectifs scientifiques

Our research will address the heuristic gap between the scientific based climate change technological knowledge and its transformation in social problematic following the mediatic circulation. This leads to further analysis on the influence of this shift on geopolitical or governance-related situations.

Method: A three-phase multidisciplinary research. 1. Actor and network analysis for the analysis of the scientific reasoning in the public space as heuristically equal to the other kind of knowledge. 2. Argument mining and identification of the polymorphism of paradigms related to climate change. 3. Paradigm shift and soft power analysis at the scale of global conflicts.

Expected results: The analysis of the trajectory of the scientific reasoning will bring light to the cycle of discourses becoming hegemonic in the public sphere. Their influence on personal and public level demonstrates the functioning of paradigms as vectors of decision at both discourse and object level.

Contribution: Considerable interdisciplinary contribution to the understanding of the role of information as power in a global and conflictual public sphere. A unique heuristic model replicable to new case studies, based on the relation to the objects, to the people, to the discourses.

The Conferences of Parties (COP) of the United Nations are environmental diplomacy events both praised and criticised. Praised for their capacity to gather almost 200 countries to dialogue and advance decisions in the field of climate, biodiversity and desertification. Criticised for their slowness and lack of clear direction. Despite the different positions, one can say that “international environmental action is essentially based on COPs, which are multilateral in nature” (Yann Wehrling, 2025). UNKNOWNPATH choses the Climate COP as a research field for the understanding of the emergence of narratives, opinions and epistemic communities in real time situations.

Organisation

Laboratoire(s)

Responsable scientifique

Luciana Radut-Gaghi (LT2D)

Chercheurs

Axel Boursier (LT2D)
Dimitris Kotzinos (ETIS)
Linda Benraïs (IRENE ESSEC)
Fabrice Cavaretta (CERESSEC)
Andreea Mogos (University Babes-Bolyai)
Miruna Hurmuz (PhD, co-tutelle CY-UBB)
Adel Tayebi (PhD)

Partenaires

Learning Planet Institute: Chahab Nastar et Noor Alkhadhar

Financement du projet

Financement CY Initiative

Année d'obtention du financement : 2023

Montants financés: 180 000
Doctorants: Miruna Hurmuz

Publications

Présentations en colloques:

Miruna Hurmuz, L'influence du locuteur sur la fragilité discursive : analyse des réactions aux discours de Greta Thunberg et Peter Kalmus sur X (Twitter), colloque international La (Dé)Fragilisation des discours. Acteurs, processus et effets, CY Cergy Paris Université, 22 et 23 mai 2025.
Luciana Radut-Gaghi, Narratives, opinions and arguments. Discursive analysis of the climate challenges, DNC6 (6e congrès DiscourseNet) – Discours et imaginaires des sociétés passées, présentes et futures : médias et représentations des (dés)ordres (inter)nationaux, ULB, Bruxelles, 7-10 juillet 2025.