Analysing the construct ‘geoengineering on Wikipedia’

Nils Markusson

CEC14, Berlin, Aug 2014

intro

• Definitions and classifications are fluid and

contested

• How to study their construction in public

discourse?

• Wikipedia offers an opportunity

– Highly public (few-to-many)

– Topology (linked labels) ideal for this question

– Heterogeneous, contextualised, longitudinal

methods

• Collaboration with researchers in Paris and Barcelona

• Dataset 1: geoengineering in climate change network

• Dataset 2: context and structure– Selected 34 start articles, followed in and out links, resulted in a set of

1155 articles

• Dataset 3: history– Manually looked into history of the 34 geoengineering related

Wikipedia pages, including both content and links

• Data collected June 2013

>> CC network

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Terraforming

Planetary engineering

Geoengineering

Article withmain GE topic

Geoengineering;space sunshade; cloud seeding

Initiation ofrelevant articles

Afforestation

Biochar;iron fertilisation

(25% of current g.e. articles initiated

after 2010)

(40% of current g.e. articles initiated

Dec 2008-2009)

2002 Reforestation

results

two groups: ‘core’ and ‘land-based’• ‘Core’: main article, SRM, OF, WM…• ‘Land-based’: BECCS, biochar… (varies by resolution)• Weakly connected, competing

different contexts- Core ↔ science; Land-based ↔ technology- Core far from climate policy- A few military categories

roots include terraforming and planetary engineering

• resists the seductive simplicity of stated definitions and classifications and makes visible informal aspects of discursive practice

• resists tendencies towards decontextualized and ahistorical presentation in the discourse on geoengineering

• can usefully be contrasted with the de facto definitions and classifications

resistance of the medium

visualisation

• Lists, diagrams, networks

• Network graphs (gephi) crucial

– Analysis and interpretation

– Overview, complexity, zooming

– Fits with the fluidity of de facto definitions

See also:

“Bounding boundaries: The construction of geoengineering on Wikipedia”, N. Markusson, A. Kaltenbrunner, D. Laniado, T. Venturini

http://www.geoengineering-governance-research.org/cgg-working-papers.php

thank you!