Silvio Funtowicz

Silvio O. Funtowicz (born 1946) is a philosopher of science active in the field of science and technology studies.
He created the NUSAP, a notational system for characterising uncertainty and quality in quantitative expressions, and together with Jerome R. Ravetz he introduced the concept of post-normal science. He is currently a guest researcher at th
Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT)
University of Bergen (Norway).

Biography

Silvio Funtowicz began his career teaching mathematics, logic and research methodology in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He left Argentina during the military dictatorship, and moved to England where, during the 1980s he was a Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, where started his cooperation with Jerome Ravetz.Gooday, G. (2006). History and philosophy of science at Leeds. Notes and Records Royal Society, 60, 183–192.
Until his retirement in 2011 he was a scientific officer at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission (EC-JRC). In 2012 he became a Professor at the Centre for the Study of the Sciences and the Humanities (SVT) at the University of Bergen, Norway, and since 2021 he has been a guest researcher there.

Work

Silvio Funtowicz' work with Jerome R. Ravetz Uncertainty and Quality in Science for PolicyFuntowicz, S. and Ravetz, J., 1990. Uncertainty and Quality in Science for Policy. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. started a series of reflections on the quality of science used for policy, mostly in connection with environmental and technological risks and policy-related research, introducing NUSAP a notational system for the management and communication of uncertainty in science for policy. NUSAP's applications to different settings were spearheaded in the Netherlands by Jeroen van der Sluijs et al. 2005.van der Sluijs, J., Craye, M., Funtowicz, S., Kloprogge, P., Ravetz, J., and Risbey, J. (2005) Combining Quantitative and Qualitative Measures of Uncertainty in Model based Environmental Assessment: the NUSAP System, Risk Analysis, 25 (2). p. 481-492.
Based on this ground work the concept of post-normal science was introduced in a series of papers published in the early nineties.Funtowicz, S. O. and Ravetz, J. R., 1991. "A New Scientific Methodology for Global Environmental Issues", in Costanza, R. (ed.), Ecological Economics: The Science and Management of Sustainability: 137–152. New York: Columbia University Press.Funtowicz, S. O. and Ravetz, J. R., 1992. "Three types of risk assessment and the emergence of postnormal science", in Krimsky, S. and Golding, D. (eds.), Social theories of risk: 251–273. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood.Funtowicz, S. and Ravetz, J., 1993. "Science for the post-normal age", Futures, 31(7): 735-755.Weingart, P. From "Finalization" to "Mode 2": old wine in new bottles?. Social Science Information 36 (4), 1997. Pp. 591-613.Turnpenny, J., Jones, M., & Lorenzoni, I. (2010). Where now for post-normal science? A critical review of its development, definitions, and uses. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 0162243910385789.

The article ‘Science for the post-normal age’ is presently the most cited paper of the journal Futures. Another paper of note is 'The worth of a songbird:ecological economics as a post-normal science' in Ecological Economics.

Today post-normal science (PNS) is intended as applicable to most instances where the use of evidence is contested due to different norms and values. For Peter Gluckman (2014), chief science advisor to the Prime Minister of New Zealand, post-normal science approaches are today appropriate for a host of problems including “eradication of exogenous pests �� offshore oil prospecting, legalization of recreational psychotropic drugs, water quality, family violence, obesity, teenage morbidity and suicide, the ageing population, the prioritization of early-childhood education, reduction of agricultural greenhouse gases, and balancing economic growth and environmental sustainability”.Gluckman, P., 2014, Policy: The art of science advice to government, Nature, 507, 163–165.

For Carrozza PNS can be “framed in terms of a call for the ‘democratization of expertise’”, and as a “reaction against long-term trends of ‘scientization’ of politics—the tendency towards assigning to experts a critical role in policymaking while marginalizing laypeople”.

Funtowicz’ most recent work – with Roger Strand - has touched upon the issue of agency at times of change, arguing that a risk centred vision based on prediction and control in front of global and emerging threats should be replaced by one based on commitment: “rather than believing that contemporary global challenges will be sufficiently met by being responsible under risk, we will ask how to stay committed in times of change.” Silvio Funtowicz and Roger Strand, 2011, Change and commitment: beyond risk and responsibility, Journal of Risk Research, 1–9.
Together with Ângela Guimarães Pereira he curated a volume for Oxford University Press ‘Science for Policy: New Challenges, New Opportunities’,Guimarães Pereira, Â. and Funtowicz, S. (eds.), 2009. Science for Policy: New Challenges, New Opportunities, Oxford University Press. and another with Routledge on the End of the Cartesian DreamGuimarães Pereira, Â. and Funtowicz, S. (eds.), 2015. Science, Philosophy and Sustainability: The end of the Cartesian dream. Routledge series Explorations in Sustainability and Governance. New York: Routledge. which represent an important collective effort gathering three generation of scholars active in the field of PNS, followed a year later by a multi-authors book by the same community on the reproducibility and quality control crisis of science.Benessia, A., Funtowicz, S., Giampietro, M., Guimarães Pereira, A., Ravetz, J., Saltelli, A., Strand, R., van der Sluijs, J., 2016. The Rightful Place of Science: Science on the Verge. The Consortium for Science, Policy and Outcomes at Arizona State University. Together with Andrea Saltelli and others he developed the concept of sensitivity auditing, an extension of sensitivity analysis for statistical and mathematical models used as input to policy design and appraisal.Saltelli A, Guimarães Pereira A, van der Sluijs JP & Funtowicz S 2013, 'What do I make of your Latinorum? Sensitivity auditing of mathematical modelling’, International Journal of Foresight and Innovation Policy, vol. 9, no. 2-4, pp. 213–234.
He has authored with Alice Benessia a series of works on innovations and technoscience. These are critical essays on what it means for a society to be ‘smart’ and ‘sustainable’.Benessia A. and Funtowicz S. (2015), Sustainability and technoscience: what do we want to sustain and for whom? The International Journal of Sustainable Development Special Issue: In the Name of Sustainability / 18 (4):329-348.Benessia A. and Funtowicz S., Never late, never lost and never unprepared (2016), In: Benessia A., Funtowicz S., Guimarães Pereira Â., Ravetz J., Saltelli A., Strand R. and van der Sluijs J.P. / The Rightful Place of Science: Science of the Verge / Tempe AZ / Consortium for Science Policy and Outcomes / pp. 71-114 /
With Jerome R. Ravetz he recently contributed two original voices to the Encyclopaedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences (Oxford) on ‘Peer Review and Quality Control’ and on ‘New Forms of Science.Funtowicz, S. and Ravetz, J. R., 2015. "Peer Review and Quality Control", Wright, J. D., (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition. Oxford: Elsevier.Ravetz, J. R. and Funtowicz, S. O., 2015. "Science, New Forms of", in Wright, J. D., (ed.), International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd edition, Vol. 21: 248–254. Oxford: Elsevier. Since the nineties he has worked with Bruna De Marchi and others on risk governance and public participation.De Marchi B., Funtowicz S., Ravetz J.R. (1996) "Seveso a paradoxical classic disaster" in J.K. Mitchell (ed.) The Long Road to Recovery: Community Responses to Industrial Disaster, United Nations University Press, Tokyo, New York, Paris, pp. 86-120.

In the 1990s, Silvio Funtowicz collaborated with the late James J. Kay and other members of what some have called the "Dirk Gently Gang" (including Mario Giampietro and David Waltner-Toews) on the Ecosystem Approach.David Waltner-Toews, James J. Kay, Nina-Marie E. Lister, Eds., 2008, The Ecosystem Approach: Complexity, Uncertainty, and Managing for Sustainability (Complexity in Ecological Systems), Columbia. This work, linking complexity theory, thermodynamics, and post-normal science, explored implications of this "new science" for environmental management and human well-being. Another scholar Silvio Funtowicz cooperates with is Martin O’Connor.Home page of Martin O’Connor
/ref> His most recent work focuses on the crisis in the quality control of science, its impact on science's social functions,Andrea Saltelli, Silvio Funtowicz, "Science cannot solve these problems alone because it helped to create them in the first place", The Guardian, July 2016
/ref> the possible flaring of old and new science wars,Andrea Saltelli, Silvio Funtowicz, Science wars in the age of Donald Trump, The Conversation, November 2016.
/ref> and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Postnormal pandemics: Why COVID-19 requires a new approach to science, guest post on STEPS by David Waltner-Toews, Annibale Biggeri, Bruna De Marchi, Silvio Funtowicz, Mario Giampietro, Martin O’Connor, Jerome R. Ravetz, Andrea Saltelli and Jeroen P. van der Sluijs.
/ref>

Bibliography

*

See also

* NUSAP
* post-normal science
* Jerome Ravetz

External links

The nusap net maintained by Jeroen van der SluijsMore articles and excerpts from S. Funtowicz's worksHome page
of David Waltner-Toews
Article
on The Conversation (website) November 16, 2016
Article
on The Conversation (website) January 27, 2017
A Post Normal Poem, in honour of Silvio Funtowicz for his 70th birthday, by David Waltner-Toews, September 2016.

Video of a lecture: Post Normal Science: Exploring Collective Accountability, 6 March 2019, Trento.

Audio of a lecture: On the rhetoric of sustainability, presented at the Forum for Science and Democracy, Bergen, November 1st, 2019

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Funtowicz, Silvio
Living people
20th-century Argentine philosophers
Philosophers of science
1946 births
21st-century Argentine philosophers