The development of local knowledge orders: a conceptual framework to explain differences in climate policy at the local level

摘要

We argue that the question of how to explain differences in the responses of cities to perceived challenges of climate change can be answered on the basis of a knowledge order derived from local processes that generate meaning. With respect to its content, such a knowledge order consists of cognitive as well as normative components. While the normative dimension covers accepted values of right or wrong providing compelling ethical and moral motivations for action, the cognitive component expresses cause-effect relationships about the state of the world and how it functions, and can thus guide decisions on what has to be done how. Moreover, specific mechanisms will be elaborated which are decisive for the formation, reproduction and transformation of a knowledge order.