Conceptualizing the Contextual Dynamics of Safety Climate and Safety Culture Research: A Comparative Scientometric Analysis

Safety climate and safety culture are important research domains in risk and safety science, and various industry and service sectors show significant interest in, and commitment to, applying its concepts, theories, and methods to enhance organizational safety performance. Despite the large body of literature on these topics, there are disagreements about the scope and focus of these concepts, and there is a lack of systematic understanding of their development patterns and the knowledge domains on which these are built. This article presents a comparative analysis of the literature focusing on safety climate and safety culture, using various scientometric analysis approaches and tools. General development patterns are identified, including the publication trends, in terms of temporal and geographical activity, the science domains in which safety culture and safety climate research occurs, and the scientific domains and articles that have primarily influenced their respective development. It is found that the safety culture and safety climate domains show strong similarities, e.g., in dominant application domains and frequently occurring terms. However, safety culture research attracts comparatively more attention from other scientific domains, and the research domains rely on partially different knowledge bases. In particular, while measurement plays a role in both domains, the results suggest that safety climate research focuses comparatively more on the development and validation of questionnaires and surveys in particular organizational contexts, whereas safety culture research appears to relate these measurements to wider organizational features and management mechanisms. Finally, various directions for future research are identified based on the obtained results.

Academic Air Travel Cultures: A Framework for Reducing Academic Flying

As primary producers of knowledge, academics are required to create and disseminate research. The advent of internationalisation has given great emphasis to the importance of travel as it pertains to the success of an academic career and the international standing of an institution. However, academics who are highly aeromobile—particularly researchers working in the field of climate change—are now facing allegations of hypocrisy that in some cases may compromise the efficacy of their (climate) research. The novelty of this chapter arises from the application of the cultures framework to the study of academic air travel. It highlights three key elements—cognitive norms, practices and material culture. In this chapter, the cultures framework is adopted to provide a structure within which to consider individual and institutional pathways to achieve a reduction in academic flying. By exploring the interplay of cognitive norms, practices, material culture, support and barriers, the gap between academic theory and institutional realities and practices can be systematically explored and fully elaborated. Furthermore, in doing so, academics may be encouraged to engage in critical self-reflection of the cognitive dissonance between personal intentions to reduce air miles and behaviours to the contrary.

Trend Analysis of Temperature and Rainfall of Rajasthan, India

Increasing temperature and declining and erratic rainfall is one of the greatest global challenges. This study presents the trend analysis of temperature and rainfall in five divisional headquarters of Rajasthan, namely, Bikaner, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Kota, and Udaipur. The historic data of minimum and maximum temperature and rainfall for a period of 49 years from 1971 to 2019 were collected from Climate Research and Services, India Meteorological Department, Pune. Detection of trends and change in magnitude was done using the Mann–Kendall (MK) test and Sen’s slope, respectively. The results of the study indicated a significant increase in both minimum and maximum temperature over time for all the five stations. However, rainfall showed a nonsignificant increasing trend for Kota and Udaipur district, whereas Bikaner, Jaipur, and Jodhpur detected a negative trend.

Evaluierung von Stadtklimamodellen mit Hilfe privater Wetterstationen

<p>Die Auswirkungen des Klimawandels können in Städten durch den urbanen Hitzeinseleffekt und die hohe Bevölkerungsdichte besonders ausgeprägt sein. Deshalb sind Informationen über die thermischen und dynamischen Verhältnisse in der Stadt essentiell für eine zukunftsfähige Stadtplanung. Im Rahmen des Projektes LUCRETIA (gefördert durch das Austrian Climate Research Programme) werden innerstädtische Temperaturmuster in Wien, Österreich, mit Hilfe von Stadtklimamodellen (MUKLIMO_3, PALM-4U) und Daten privater Wetterstationen untersucht.</p> <p>Während die Dichte herkömmlicher Wetterstationsnetze in der Regel zu gering ist, um die Temperaturmuster in Städten zu erfassen und die Ergebnisse von Stadtklimamodellen zu bewerten, bieten private Wetterstationen ein dichtes Messnetz, insbesondere in Städten. In Wien stehen für unseren Untersuchungszeitraum im August 2018, nach der Qualitätskontrolle, mehr als 1000 private Wetterstationen der Firma Netatmo zur Verfügung. Erste Untersuchungen haben gezeigt, dass die Lufttemperaturmessungen der Netatmo Stationen gut mit den Messungen von konventionellen Stationen übereinstimmen. Die beobachteten Unterschiede werden auf die unterschiedlichen Standorte der Stationen und mikroskalige Effekte zurückgeführt.</p> <p>Im Rahmen des Projektes LUCRETIA werden Ergebnisse zweier unterschiedlicher Modelle (MUKLIMO_3, PALM-4U), mit verschiedener räumlicher Auflösung, für einen dreitägigen Zeitraum im August 2018 mit Hilfe der privaten Wetterstationen genauer untersucht. Ein Vergleich der Netatmo-Temperaturdaten mit den Ergebnissen des Stadtklimamodells MUKLIMO_3 für Wien, mit einer räumlichen Auflösung von 100m x 100m, zeigt für viele Stationen ein ähnliches Muster wie der Vergleich zwischen konventionellen Stationen und den Modellergebnissen: die Netatmo Stationen verzeichnen am Nachmittag eine schnellere Temperaturabnahme als die Simulation und die Temperatur in der Nacht wird vom Modell häufig überschätzt. Dennoch stimmen die räumlichen Muster in der Nacht, welche von den Messungen beziehungsweise den Simulationsergebnissen abgeleitet wurden, gut miteinander überein. Tagsüber sind die räumlichen Temperaturmuster unterschiedlich. Die Netatmo Daten weisen tagsüber, wegen mikroskaliger Effekte, sehr starke kleinräumige Unterschiede auf. Im nächsten Schritt werden die Modellergebnisse der räumlich höher aufgelösten Modelle (MUKLIMO_3 (20m), PALM4U (2m)) mit den Netatmo Daten verglichen und die Auswirkungen der verschiedenen Landnutzungsklassen auf die Temperatur in der Stadt untersucht. </p>

A short term characterisation of wind and temperature over Maitri, East Antarctica

Polar Science is gaining increased importance in Climate Change studies because of the profound influence Polar Climatology has on the Global Climate. Research shows that Antarctica seems to be warming around the edges and cooling at the center at the same time. East Antarctica is climatologically colder than west Antarctica because of its higher elevation. A short term characterization of wind and the temperature over Maitri is attempted in this paper. Maximum and Minimum temperatures showed a tendency to decrease with winter contributing the most to the change. The Wind Directions were predominantly South-South-Easterly in summer and autumn and South-Easterly in winter and spring, with katabatic winds showing the maximum frequency in autumn. The wind speeds were found to be most variable in winter. Greater contributions to the wind chill temperatures were found from the winds, with the tendency for change being more prominent in the transition seasons.

North-South climate tensions may undermine progress

Significance With the world still not on track to restrict global warming to 1.5 degrees relative to pre-industrial times, a major divide in particular looks set to grow between developed and developing economies, over who should shoulder responsibility for meeting that goal. Impacts Northern-centric climate research will ensure continued bias in the identification of priorities and the development of possible solutions. Wealthy governments will offer individual countries financing, outside global agreements, to encourage enhanced emissions reduction. Natural disasters caused by climate change will drive increased undocumented migration from poor countries towards wealthy ones.

Where’s the Love? Recentering Indigenous and Feminist Ethics of Care for Engaged Climate Research

Across a range of environmental change and crisis-driven research fields, including conservation, climate change and sustainability studies, the rhetoric of participatory and engaged research has become somewhat of a normative and mainstream mantra. Aligning with cautionary tales of participatory approaches, this article suggests that, all too often, ‘engaged’ research is taken up uncritically and without care, often by pragmatist, post-positivist and neoliberal action-oriented researchers, for whom the radical and relational practice of PAR is paradigmatically (ontologically, epistemologically and/or axiologically) incommensurable. Resisting depoliticised and rationalist interpretations of participatory methodologies, I strive in this article to hold space for the political, relational and ethical dimensions of collaboration and engagement. Drawing on four years of collaborative ethnographic climate research in the Peruvian Andes with campesinos of Quilcayhuanca, I argue that resituating Participatory Action Research (PAR) within a feminist and indigenous ethics of care more fully aligns with the radical participatory praxis for culturally appropriate transformation and the liberation of oppressed groups. Thus, I do not abandon the participatory methodology altogether, rather this article provides a hopeful reworking of the participatory methodology and, specifically, participatory and community-based adaptation (CBA) practices, in terms of a feminist and indigenous praxis of love-care-response. In so doing, I strive to reclaim the more radical feminist and Indigenous elements – the affective, relational and political origins of collaborative knowledge production – and rethink research in the rupture of climate crises, relationally. The ethico-political frictions and tensions inherent in engaged climate scholarship are drawn into sharp relief, and deep reflection on the responsibility researchers take on when asking questions in spaces and times of ecological loss, trauma and grief is offered.