Making Evidence in the Future Perfect: Provincialising Climate Impact Science in the Quest for More-Than-Human Liveability

Abstract

At stake in the Anthropocene is more-than-human liveability. What does this mean for anthropology? This contribution develops one possible answer for the context of climate impact and global environmental change research. It argues for situated modelling as a co-laborative practice between anthropology and the natural sciences. In a first section, the paper sets out from an analysis of recent shifts in the field of climate impact research that has culminated in demands for evidence-based democratic deliberation. The analysis demonstrates how this understanding of evidence introduces a new temporality to the debate (future perfect) and how it risks narrowing the notion of evidence. In its main section, the paper outlines situated modelling as a generatively critical way of engaging climate impact science. Situated modelling is committed to opening up scientific method to participation from diverse publics. It rests on ontological anarchy, partial withness and assembled reflexivity. The paper concludes that situated modelling is one way of addressing the infrastructures of global climate impact science co-laboratively in order to widen what is recognized as legitimate forms of expertise and evidence.