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Global Environmental Values and Local Contexts of Action
Abstract
The effects of environmental change on individuals and societies are receiving increasing attention. Local, national and international organisations are all undertaking research and developing policy on environmental management and regulation. This level of concern appears, initially, to indicate a positive and growing awareness of human-environment interactions. However, it is not clear that in developing agenda for action the different parties are in fact referring to the same `environment', nor that the meanings of environmental concepts are understood in the same ways by `experts' and `non-experts'.
The paper examines this issue in two ways. First, the authors consider the diversity of referents which accompany the concept of the environment in academic, policy, business and lay discourses. Second, they discuss some of the ways in which individuals who encounter environmental change at the local level employ the concept of `the environment' differently in order to achieve political ends. The discussion and the data upon which it is based are used to indicate the ways that `global' environmental concepts are localised in specific contexts of action. Finally, the authors argue that the complexity of the discursive frameworks, together with the absence of enduring, coherent environmental value systems within which to situate perspectives on environmental change, implies that frameworks for environmental understanding and action cannot be imposed from outside of the contexts in which goals, values and motives are embedded.
... Yet, if the sites of interaction or contexts of these knowledges are considered, debates about local environments are actually forms of active engagement. That is, local knowledges are not simply narrow opinions that are stridently adhered to, but are in fact situated discourses that actors mobilise for particular ends (Bumingham and O'Brien 1994). This perspective shifts research focuses away from examining local knowledge as a source of public opinions, to instead examining the forms of practices and relations embodied in specific discourses, and NIMBY stands for 'not in my backyard'. ...
... As the above quote suggests, the contents of the Environet are a contested body of information, which has been found in many studies (see Burgess et al. 1998, Bumingham and O'Brien 1994, Clayton 1993, Darier and Schule 1999, Halfacre and Matheny 1999, Harrison et al. 1996, Hinchliffe 1996, Myerson and Rydin 1996, Szerszynski 1999. This research strongly echoes these findings. ...
... The 'global' becomes one lens through which events can be seen and debated, a voice used to re/present experiences. This resonates with Bumingham and O'Brien's (1994) argument that all accounts of concems use systems of reference to make points in relation to a particular set of interests. From this perspective global environmental concepts can be seen as another mobilised system of reference. ...
The sustainable development paradigm has focused political and academic attention on the concept of sustainable consumption. As current levels of domestic energy use and waste production in post-industrial countries have been increasingly acknowledged as contributors to detrimental global environmental change, debates have emerged about how best to promote the widespread adoption of patterns of sustainable consumption. National strategies, in countries that include the UK, have been developed to affect changes in consumption patterns. This thesis focuses on the environmental information campaign, one strategy that encourages citizens to adopt environmentally friendly consumption patterns or 'lifestyles'. To date, these information campaigns have been ineffective at encouraging individuals to adopt environmentally friendly lifestyles. This thesis aims to address why this may be the case. It investigates one behaviour change programme called Action at Home. It does so by talking to its participants as they take part in the programme. It investigates the discursive processes Action at Home participants engage in when thinking about making changes to their lifestyles. This thesis is theoretically set within grounded social science debates about how publics relate to the concepts and communications of sustainable development. Findings herein suggest that a constructionist and discursive approach to individual's engagement with sustainable lifestyles information can be helpful in building an embedded model of behaviour change. It situates the adoption of sustainable lifestyles within a 'life politics' project of high modernity, positioning the knowledgeable and political social actor and their lifeworld as central theoretical constructs. It concludes that using distanced and disembedded techniques to question deeply embedded and recursive sets of practices has limited viability as a policy tool, bringing the entire sustainable consumption project into question as a feasible political goal.
... Such transmissions play a particularly pivotal role for environmental contention because of its heavy reliance on information, knowledge, and expertise. The literature suggests that the contents that can be disseminated via networked contention include information about issue interpretations, (movement) frames, and strategies employed by other movements or social actors, which may then be 'emulated' by the adopting actors (Givan, Roberts, and Soule 2010;McAdam 1995;McAdam and Rucht 1993;Soule 2004;Tarrow 1995Tarrow , 2010. 10 In the case of environmental contention, this includes (but is not limited to) issue interpretations, frames, 11 and environmental concepts employed by regional or (trans-)national actors or environmental movements that can be adapted to the local context (Burningham and O'Brien 1994;Heiman 1990;Johnson 2013b). ...
... Similar to the formation of a 'contentious consciousness', the construction of such a collective identity is regarded as a crucial mechanism for the mobilization of contention (Mc-Adam, Tarrow, and Tilly 2001: 132-159). In this context, intermediaries can play an important role as diffusion nodes or 'translators' between regional, national, and transnational actors and movements, on the one hand, and local communities, on the other, by providing broader identity frames that can be adopted to the local context or by permitting local activists to feel as part of a larger movement (Burningham and O'Brien 1994;Heiman 1990;Johnson 2013b;G. Yang 2010). ...
... This can not only lift disparate local claims to the national level, but can also transform the mostly short-lived local struggles into more sustained policy advocacy. In the literature on contentious politics, local contenders have been reported to have closed ranks with supra-local environmentalists by deliberately broadening the scope of their claims and aligning their interpretations of the issues with regional or (trans-)national environmental struggles (Burningham and O'Brien 1994;Heiman 1990;Johnson 2013b). 16 Scale shift may also move in a downward direction, i.e., from (trans-)national to regional and local levels (McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly 2001;Tarrow 2010). ...
... Rather than focus on the use of value classifications to assist management applications, a more useful understanding of potential value utility is provided by considering a fundamental distinction of value contexts. Based on value overviews in Brown (1984), Brown and Manfredo (1987), Burningham and O'Brien (1994), Kuentzel and Freeman (1994), Kuentzal and others (1997), Williams and Watson (this proceedings), and with reference to perspectives gathered from numerous other literature, it is possible to identify two simplified but usefully different orientations for values -'held' values and 'assigned' values 1 . ...
... While these values are acknowledged as being no more than socio-psychological constructs, where commonly present, they are pragmatically considered as 'social facts' and as virtual entities in themselves. In other words, they are conceptions of the desirable that people have or 'hold' where the values are implicit in the subject (the individual or the group) rather than attached to the object (Burningham and O'Brien 1994). In fact they are referred to as 'held' values, after the definition as such by Brown (1984). ...
... The 'assigned' value orientation is based on the premise that definable objects hold some value for people, which they have attributed to those objects individually, or as part of some wider social perspective. This is where values are linked to the object rather than the subject (Burningham and O'Brien 1994), as is the case for 'held' values. In this context, the term 'object' often has a broad meaning. ...
Abstract—This paper explores,a value specification option to bet- ter meet,a core,information,need,in protected,area management for recreation,and,conservation.,It does,not debate,the meaning or definition of values, but instead identifies a perspective on val- ues that is aimed at meeting,practical conservation,management needs. The first part of that,perspective,involves,extracting,from the wider,values,discourse,some,working,pragmatic,definition of what,‘Conservation Values’ are. The second involves clarifying how the priority attributes,and,features,of conservation,values,could be considered,management,‘assets.’ Then it describes how,the De- partment,of Conservation,(DOC) in New,Zealand,is beginning,to implement,value-in-place specifications through,its Visitor Asset Management,System (VAMS). Future directions required to advance this implementation,further through,a wider,range,of conservation value considerations,are discussed. The Management Need ___________
... First, within cultural geography there has been a long-running focus on environmental discourses and their role in enabling or constraining PEB. Amongst others, the work of Burningham and O'Brien (1994), Harrison et al (1996), Myers and Macnaghten (1998), Burgess et al (1998Burgess et al ( , 2003, and Hobson (2002) has illustrated clearly that 'the environment', and 'environmental change' are not essential, static entities that exist 'out there' or in individual attitudes and values. Instead, they are seen to represent discursive constructions that are performed and enacted anew in specific local contexts, always in relation to, and often against, other more powerful discourses (e.g. ...
... This, I would argue, does not represent an awakening of latent environmental attitudes and values, but rather the active construction and performance of a localised and contextually embedded environment (cf. Burningham and O'Brien 1994). ...
... Addressing the issue of motivation, empirical evidence shows that the environment is conceptualised differently by different people; dependent on who is being asked and what the respondent is trying to achieve (Harrison et al., 1987;Burgess et al., 1988;Mohai and Bryant, 1992;Burningham and O' Brien, 1994;Macnaghten, 1995;see also Saunders (1988) for similar findings in health promotion). Burningham and O' Brien (1994), for example, describe an area of woodland that is part of a development proposal as being attractive and worth preserving by objectors of the proposal and as overgrown and neglected by the developers. ...
... Addressing the issue of motivation, empirical evidence shows that the environment is conceptualised differently by different people; dependent on who is being asked and what the respondent is trying to achieve (Harrison et al., 1987;Burgess et al., 1988;Mohai and Bryant, 1992;Burningham and O' Brien, 1994;Macnaghten, 1995;see also Saunders (1988) for similar findings in health promotion). Burningham and O' Brien (1994), for example, describe an area of woodland that is part of a development proposal as being attractive and worth preserving by objectors of the proposal and as overgrown and neglected by the developers. They argue that, in different contexts, different dimensions are prioritised and valued in different ways. ...
This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that no quotation from the thesis, nor any information derived therefrom, may be published without the author's prior written consent.
... The understandings they offer have been recognised as narrow, instrumental and functionalist since at least the mid-1990s (e.g. Burningham and O'Brien, 1994;Harrison et al., 1996;Macnaghten and Jacobs, 1997). Nonetheless, their continued dominance, in policy debates at least, suggests that continued repetition and rehearsal of these critiques is both warranted and necessary. ...
... Within cultural geography there has been a long-running focus on environmental discourses and their role in enabling or constraining PEB. Amongst others, the work of Burningham and O'Brien (1994), Harrison et al. (1996), Myers and Macnaghten (1998), Burgess et al. (1998Burgess et al. ( , 2003, and Hobson (2002) has illustrated clearly that 'the environment', and 'environmental change' are not essential, static entities that exist 'out there' or in individual attitudes and values. Instead, they are seen as discursive constructions that are performed and enacted anew in specific local contexts, always in relation to, and often against, other more powerful discourses (e.g. ...
Drawing on Flyvbjerg’s (2001) call for the development of phronetic social science, this paper argues that much current research into pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) is misguided, and even potentially dangerous. After outlining Flyvbjerg’s argument, it reviews existing work on PEB and argues that, to date, it has predominantly sought after the Aristotelian intellectual virtues of either episteme or techne, and has neglected phronesis which Aristotle himself saw as most important. It then explores the ways in which aspects of a phronetic approach are being developed in cultural geography and environmental sociology, before offering a brief empirical case study of a PEB-change initiative to illustrate what a phronetic approach to research might look like. It concludes by calling for an improved and more reflexive dialogue between PEB researchers regarding the purpose and approach of their work, both in order to improve the relevance and impact of their research, and in order to help individuals and communities understand and confront the significant environmental challenges they currently face.
... Critical development scholars argue that economically disadvantaged domestic constituencies support paying the costs of climate action when national elites impose adherence to a sustainability norm, where formal and informal inequalities exclude the poor from policy making (Newell 2005). At the same time, national elites may declare adherence to climate action in international fora, but they still must enact their decisions in distinct and often challenging domestic contexts (Burningham and O'Brien 1994). Against ideational accounts, this perspective argues that what is happening at the domestic level is less the result of widespread acceptance of sustainable development as a norm that should guide economic policy than an imposition by national elites. ...
There is little reason to expect developing countries to take costly local actions for global climate benefits. This is less so when populist governments of the left – who claim to speak for the poorest sectors of the population – must negotiate environmental protection and development. This article examines climate action in Ecuador, one of the poorest countries of Latin America, during a populist moment. We propose an analytical framework that explains how moments of institutional rupture create space to articulate ideational and material interests towards climate action. We explore this by analyzing an initiative that would have left oil underground in exchange for compensation by the international community. Beyond the rise of significant personalities, populist moments signal a rupture where power relations, norms, and development trajectories can be reconfigured. Populists are political entrepreneurs who articulate these conditions for personal gain, but populist moments also reveal space for climate action.
... Based on the understanding that environmental discourses are not only time-but also place-specific (Bickerstaff & Walker, 2001;Burningham & O'Brien, 1994;Schafft et al., 2013), a rising number of studies deal with local perspectives on sustainability issues (Byrne et al., 2017;Dempsey, 2021;Håvard, 2017;Swedeen, 2006). Buckwell et al. (2020), for instance, revealed the dominant discourses towards natural resource management within rural communities in Tanna Island, a small Pacific Island state, which is facing increasing environmental pressures from population growth, tourism, and climate change. ...
Despite the increasing popularity of the notion of sustainability, there have been global challenges in effectively addressing environmental problems. One of the key strengths of the sustainability concept is its ability to coordinate and unite otherwise contending groups. Because of this bridging function, however, the concept remains necessarily ambiguous, which can obscure existing inconsistencies and tensions and thereby block the successful translation into concrete policy action. In this study, we analyse how environmental sustainability is understood within semi-rural communities in the Canadian province Alberta, which exhibits a heavy economic reliance on fossil fuels and a strong conservative voter base. By carrying out a Q-method study in two characteristic towns, we were able to identify three competing sustainability perspectives: 'Radical transition towards a post-fossil society', 'Maintaining the Albertan way of life', and 'Technological innovation and growth'. The study findings emphasize the embeddedness of sustainability framings in the cultural and socioeconomic context. Furthermore, the uncovered perspectives not only reveal conflicting viewpoints, but also areas of consensus as well as points which could be considered as neutral. It is argued that policy action should acknowledge both the place-specific nature as well as the nuance and complexity of environmental discourses to be effective.
... The objects and practices of low-tech creativity we discovered present the opposite to "imposed" sustainable behaviour [47][48][49] and contemporary "design for development" within the "appropriate technology" movement [50]: from within, through local knowledge and oral history, through personal craft and trial, by virtue of economic reasons. In a global context, the Pozhva jeep-simple, durable, not flawless but easy-to-maintainis comparable to iconic and long-standing examples of appropriate technology [50,51]. ...
This article (visual essay) provides a glimpse of a field trip ventured by design students as part of a larger study of developing a localised version of design education for sustainability, focusing on the wants and needs of non-urban populations in vast Russian hinterlands. The central goal is to introduce would-be designers to the concepts of locally appropriate technology and sustainable/circular living by real-life examples and, eventually, teach them to recognise the sustainable potential of place-based technologies and practices of their making, using and maintaining. The primary data came from the trip to Pozhva, a village in Permskiy Krai, Russia, that gained popularity among DIY activists and users of off-road vehicles in Russia in the early 2000s because of its unique, community-centred manufacture of lightweight ATVs on low-pressure tires, nicknamed “jeeps”. This article presents the students’ journey in a comic strip portraying a composite character of technologies and their user-designers as experts in local conditions and (subconsciously) agents of circularity. The article closes with a discussion on the expedition’s discoveries and learning outcomes, correlating them with broader implications for design education.
... Scientifically, local knowledge of heat exposure risk contribute to our understanding of the patterns and variability in such risks across the globe and help fill gaps in critical observational data needed for climate change analysis (Roth, 2004;Turnbull, 2002;Wilbanks, 2002). From an ethical viewpoint, personal experiences of heat exposure risk at the local level are a significant source of data for discourse on and evaluation of climate change impacts (Brace & Geoghegan, 2011;Burningham & Obrien, 1994). Understanding people's perceptions of climate change based on heat exposure risk and magnitude from a practical perspective is relevant in providing suitable and locally based social protection, adaptation and mitigation strategies (Becken et al., 2013;Yaro, 2013). ...
This was a 3-year full time research project. Heat exposure due to rising temperature and climate change adversely affects workers’ health, productivity, and psychosocial well-being in occupational settings. The convergent mixed-methods approach comprising data loggers, 346 surveys and interviews were employed to assess the social impacts of climate change, occupational heat stress and adaptation strategies of Ghanaian mineworkers. Workplace heat exposure was high. Workers’ climate change risk perceptions were adequate, their concerns about climate change effects, workplace heat exposure risks, heat-related morbidities, and adaptation strategies differed significantly across the type of mining activity (p<0.001). A concerted effort is required to promote workers’ adaptive capacity and inform policy decisions.
... While the issues under consideration in different contexts may be broadly similar, their particular meanings may not be. Burningham and O'Brien (1994) argue that because the environment generally has no fixed place in the patterns of everyday life, it becomes a 'matter for concern' only when mobilized by particular social actors who act according to their own goals in particular localized circumstances. ...
The effects of human impacts on the environment are often not comprehensible to people and have to be given meaning through communication. Such impacts, most prominently climate change, have increased to the extent that human actions are the dominant force in planetary biophysical systems. Yet these impacts are for the most part unintentional and not subject to democratic control. A critical discourse analysis of campaign material and media content examines how three advocacy groups – 350, a climate activist organization, The Breakthrough Institute, a think-tank, and The Nature Conservancy, an established conservation organization – discursively construct climate change. The three groups acknowledge the need to more consciously or deliberatively manage environmental impacts, and yet all have very different assumptions, objectives and tactics in their advocacy. Analysis of the communication activities of the organizations and how their ideas are represented and contested in other media shows not only how they construct the particular issue of climate change but their relationship to societal power relationships. How the organizations build their case for action involves discursive acts which define or re-define the boundaries between nature and society and what (and who) is to be included or excluded from political concern. Unless directly challenged, these new formations will reproduce existing power structures and inequalities.
... In campaigns and local or national governments have been the sample, there are 40 freshmen, 30 sophomore, 25 junior developing policies to solve these problems and activities and 25 senior students. changes from country to other country [19]. Likewise, there are numerous nongovernmental organizations in Process: ...
The aim of study is to investigate the pre-service teachers' awareness of environmental problems. The study was carried out during spring semester of 2010 educational periods. The sample of the study consisted of 120 pre-service teachers at the Department of Primary Teacher Education in Faculty of Education at Artvin Çoruh University. In the study, qualitative research method was used. As a result of study, it was found that pre-service teachers have knowledge about air, water, soil pollution, garbage problem and green house effect. Besides, although pre-service teachers know that they have been damaging and protecting activities on environment; they were not inclined to give up their damaging behaviour.
... There are several ethical, scientific, and practical reasons for giving increased attention to local perspectives within climate research and policy settings (Hulme 2010;Klein et al. 2014;Offen 2014). Ethically, because climate impacts are experienced by individuals at local scales, many argue that non-expert voices and perspectives should play a larger role in efforts to measure and respond to these impacts (Burningham and O'Brien 1994;Brace and Geoghegan 2011). Scientifically, local knowledge can provide an important source of information on changes that are occurring in different communities/geographies where critical gaps in observational data and abilities to model climate parameters at fine scales (discussed in more detail below) exist (Turnbull 2002;Wilbanks 2002;Roth 2004;Laidler 2006). ...
Local perspectives on changing weather and climate and analyses of meteorological data represent two different but potentially complementary ways of knowing about the local-scale impacts of global climate change. This paper uses quantitative social survey data from the Kassena and Nankana Districts of Northern Ghana and the best available meteorological records to examine recent changes in weather patterns for this region. The most commonly mentioned changes perceived by respondents include changes in the timing or predictability of rains, and overall drier conditions. Both of these changes are corroborated by precipitation datasets: The onset of the peak rainy season has shifted progressively later over the past decade, by up to a month, and the rainy season has been drier over the past 3–5 years compared to the past 10–35 years, mainly due to lower rainfall during peak months (June and July). Many respondents also said that conditions had become windier, and we find that this perception varies spatially within the districts, but no meteorological data are available for this climate parameter in this region. The common perception that deforestation is responsible for observed changes in weather patterns is partly supported by Landsat imagery indicating a reduction in dense vegetation in recent decades. This comparison highlights some of the potential benefits and challenges involved in giving more voice to community perspectives in the co-production of knowledge on global climate change and its regional impacts.
... 5. Ver al respecto el documento de trabajo del 2 de octubre de 1998, Moving beyond «global» and «local», firmado por Clare Hinrichs y otros, en http://www.ces.nesu.edu/depts/ sociology/ne185/global.html 6. En lo que sigue al respecto de la «localización» de los valores mediambientales nos basamos en Burningham y O'Brien (1994), pero no en lo que entendemos por la versión «global» del problema. ...
... This type of misattribution of climate change impacts commonly occurs because climate change is a phenomenon that is most often experienced locally (Wilbanks 2002), but many of the factors causing climate change occur at a global level (Wilbanks and Kates 1999). Isolated communities, such as Providence Island, with potentially limited information pertaining to climate change, face the greatest challenge in making links between local impacts and global practices, which may contribute misattribution (Burningham and O'Brien 1994). ...
Climate change-related impacts have the capacity to substantially influence Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in the Caribbean. Currently, many SIDS are engaged in large-scale vulnerability assessments that aim to identify, analyse, and inform solutions to mitigate climate change-related impacts. Many of these assessments, while useful, place little emphasis on the local stakeholders' perceptions of climate change. One such Caribbean community impacted by climate-related change is Providence Island in Colombia. Using a vulnerability assessment framework (Marshall, P.A. et al. 2010. A framework for social adaptation to climate change: sustaining tropical coastal communities and industries. Gland: IUCN Publication Services), researchers interviewed island residents (N = 23) about their perceptions of climate change, impacts on the local environment, and how the island community may adapt. All interviews were transcribed and analysed using a priori and open coding to identify patterns of and relationships between stakeholders' responses. Results indicate that local perceptions of climate change are linked to (1) environmental knowledge, (2) environmental awareness, attitudes, and beliefs, and (3) perceptions of risk. Implications for local adaptive strategies, education, communication, and suggestions for engagement at the local level are discussed.
... These studies demonstrated empirically how the environment and environmental problems are not 'out there' and fixed, but are in fact constructed in different ways by different agents at different times and in different places (e.g. Burgess et al 1998;Burningham and O'Brien 1994;Harrison et al 1996;Myers and Macnaghten 1998;Macnaghten and Urry 1998). Subsequent studies examined how these environmental discourses functioned in the course of everyday life, revealing not only that they are often marginalised by other prevailing social discourses in specific contexts (e.g. ...
... 24 In this approach, the contextual dimensions of environmental concern are ignored so that public perceptions are seen as stable, coherent, and consistent and to exist within individuals, rather than being located within the inter-subjective contexts of institutions and discourse. 25 Achieving a sustainable society is therefore seen as involving individual changes in attitude and the adoption of a coherent and stable environmental world-view. However, "it has been well documented that increasing awareness and concern among citizens may not translate into effective behavioral changes, due to a variety of cognitive and structural barriers, and this is specially the case with global-level problems." ...
This paper argues that public understanding of climate change not only involves knowledge of its physical processes, but also encompasses wider issues concerning the relation between society and nature. It examines the conclusions of previous research, and assumptions made within the policy community concerning public understanding of climate change. It is argued that in each case, in accordance with the information deficit model, recorded levels of ignorance are seen as a barrier to effective public involvement in the policy process. This view is challenged by research findings from Newcastle, Australia. Public understanding of global environmental issues drew not only on scientific information, but also on local knowledges, values, and moral responsibilities. Further, respondents connected the issue to their communities, and suggested that individual action is morally sanctioned, despite concerns for the efficacy of such action and the lack of government or industry support. Where institutional realignment has occurred to provide renewable energy to householders, public involvement has been forthcoming. These findings suggest that rather than focus on the provision of information, policy attention should be directed to the social and institutional barriers that act to constrain public involvement in addressing global environmental issues.
... We end with a brief summary of key insights from the overall study (chapter 5). Burningham and O'Brien (1994) use the idea of 'localisation' to argue that environmental (or risk) concepts are always made sense of in particular socio-economic and cultural contexts. In other words (global) concepts of the environment and risk are not simply made sense of in relation to a particular territorial space or set of local social networks, but are also contextualised in terms of a range of everyday problems and routines as well as significant events and processes. ...
... This implies that those outside traditional communities of supporters are likely to become involved in 'the environment' only when their lifeworld is touched. Hence, rather than talking about 'one environment', it may be more appropriate to talk according to the versions of the environment that are meaningful for different groups of people (see also Burningham and O'Brien, 1994;Cooper, 1992). In many ways this reverses the traditional storyline of a 'global nature' under threat and in need of protection from a global imagined community. ...
This paper suggests ways in which 'the environment' needs to be reconfigured so that it better resonates with how people are experiencing politics, nature and everyday life. Through empirical research on environmental concerns and everyday practices , this paper sketches a framework through which the values associated with contemporary environmentalism might be developed in a more reflexive relationship to wider transformations in society. In particular, the research critically evaluates the standard storyline of a 'global nature' under threat and in need of collective action by a global imagined community. In contrast to rhetorics of the global environment, this paper explores ways in which the environment is being embodied , valued and experienced in an array of social practices. The paper further outlines the significance of such embodied practices as significant yet undervalued points of connection for wider, global environmental issues.
... In terms of climate change risk, agricultural and rural studies have examined risk perceptions among relevant local-scale communities (Clark & White, 2002;Dalgleish & White, 1999-2001Patt & Gwata, 2002). Burningham and O'Brien (1994) argue that 'global concepts of environment and environmental change are always localised in particular socio-political and cultural contexts' (p. 914) (original emphasis). ...
Place-embedded, resource-dependent industries are increasingly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The scientific framing of these risks can be understood through modelling; however, risks are perceived by non-scientific communities in more culturally relevant and localised frames. This empirical study utilised qualitative, semi-structured interviews with four stakeholder groups connected to the ski industry in Queenstown, New Zealand. The objectives of this research were to identify current scientific knowledge on climate change risks to Queenstown's ski industry and to critically address how the risk of climate change is perceived. This paper reports three main findings: (1) scientific reporting and expert interviews expect climate change to manifest as inter-annual variability up to the 2050s, (2) current climatic variability is perceived to be the greatest risk to the ski industry at present and (3) climate change is perceived to be distant and a greater threat to other people and other places giving rise to ‘optimistic bias’.
... Often the purpose of local land use regulations is to protect personal property as opposed to broader ecological or cultural concerns. Therefore, claims that connect development with a negative impact on personal property are more likely to succeed than those made for a wider public interest (Burningham & O'Brien, 1994). For example, a rural resident claiming that the development of a high density subdivision will lower the value of his nearby property has greater chance of success than a claim that such development will destroy the rural character of the countryside. ...
Continuing current low density patterns of housing development would have significant environmental impact. The urgency of adopting higher-density patterns, however, runs counter to what is acceptable to the public, especially in rural areas. Though it is widely assumed that the opposition is to density, the concerns may be about a wide range of factors that can be addressed in ways that would achieve greater environmental sustainability. The purposes of this dissertation are to (1) disentangle some of these concerns from density, and (2) address these concerns via design, policy, and participatory approaches in order to offset the perceived negative impacts of increasing density. In particular, the focus is on patterns that address the importance that the natural environment affords rural residents.
Rural residents in Southeastern Michigan completed a survey that included 16 scenes of residential developments, varying in density as well as the arrangement of housing and nature on the parcel. Their ratings of the acceptability of each scene as well as attitudes regarding a variety of planning approaches that might offset the perceived negative impacts of a hypothetical dense development were related to geo-coded and other environmental information.
Results show that acceptability is significantly affected by the pattern of vegetation; scenes showing clustered housing with expanses of forest cover are more acceptable than developments that have the same number of houses evenly dispersed. Independent ratings of the developments for perceived density also show that integrating forest cover reduces the perceived level of density. Responses to the planning approaches suggest that preserving local landscapes is more important to rural residents than reducing traffic, promoting mixed residential and commercial land uses, and other strategies that are popular in urban areas. Examination of rural experience provides further insights for understanding the variation in responses.
These results suggest that the perceived negative impacts of higher density can be mitigated by a variety of strategies that emphasize the preservation of nature. Given the environmental impact of low density residential development, such straightforward approaches can simultaneously address citizen concerns and advance the requirements of sustainability.
... Focus groups are of special interest in fields of study where not only the individual opinions and perceptions with respect to a certain subject are of interest but where social processes of knowledge exchange, value sharing and opinion making play a central role (Liamputtong, 2009). In the context of climate change, different studies have emphasized the importance of place-specific factors such as community composition and socio-political power distribution in order to understand the local framing of global change issues (Adger et al., 2009;Burningham & O'Brien, 1994;O'Brien, Sygna, & Haugen, 2004). In this context, focus groups allow for a simulation of how perceptions and risk assessments are shared and how individual perceptions are discussed and reassessed based on interactions within social groups (see e.g. ...
... 356). People's local understanding of weather phenomena has been of increasing interest to researchers who seek to understand localised perceptions of global concepts, such as climate change (Burningham and O'Brien, 1994). ...
... That the results referred to their practice, as opposed to more general facts and figures about the environmental consequences of everyday life, seemed to be crucial in localizing the environment, making it real and relevant (cf. Burningham and O'Brien, 1994). Further still, the quotation also shows how the audit process served a motivating function, encouraging the Champions to 'do something about' routine practices that had previously gone unquestioned. ...
This article applies the insights of social practice theory to the study of proenvironmental behaviour change through an ethnographic case study (nine months of participant observation and 38 semi-structured interviews) of a behaviour change initiative — Environment Champions — that occurred in a workplace. In contrast to conventional, individualistic and rationalist approaches to behaviour change, social practice theory de-centres individuals from analyses, and turns attention instead towards the social and collective organization of practices — broad cultural entities that shape individuals’ perceptions, interpretations and actions within the world. By considering the planning and delivery of the Environment Champions initiative, the article suggests that practice theory provides a more holistic and grounded perspective on behaviour change processes as they occur in situ. In so doing, it offers up a wide range of mundane footholds for behavioural change, over and above individuals’ attitudes or values. At the same time, it reveals the profound difficulties encountered in attempts to challenge and change practices, difficulties that extend far beyond the removal of contextual ‘barriers’ to change and instead implicate the organization of normal everyday life. The article concludes by considering the benefits and shortcomings of a practice-based approach emphasizing a need for it to develop a greater understanding of the role of social interactions and power relations in the grounded performance of practices.
... Presently R M is ecocentrically redundant and its usefulness as a discursive resource is hindered by not explicitly acknowledging this. To make such articulation challenges its followers to truly take on board global concerns in R M's own local context (Burningham and O'Brien, 1994) before attempts at what is hailed as meaningful theory development is embarked upon (Hunt, 1997). One needs to problematize the RM discourse for risk society as well as for the cultural turn in social science (Alexander, 1996) and enquire if it is indeed possible to develop an ecocentric relationship marketing school of thought. ...
Relationship marketing (RM) has come to dominate the (r)evolutionary imagination of marketing thought. This paper discuss the limitations and impotencies of RM in terms of two key dimensions which are of fundamental importance to the development of marketing ideas – namely the legitimate representation and empowerment of consumers and citizens, and the consideration of environmental welfare in risk society. It is proposed that current theories of RM, while promising a more appropriate and credible set of marketing principles, do in fact undermine these two crucial considerations to such an extent that the robustness and social relevance of RM as a meaningful discursive resource is seriously called into question.
... René Dubos echoed this in 1972 during the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment with his famous phrase 'think globally, act locally'. However, many immediate difficulties arose when trying to apply this key idea to the world environment: today, many societies, even if they can ever afford to think globally, definitely act locally, though not always necessarily 'ecologically'; see Burningham and O'Brien (1994). 12. ...
This article explores the growth of new forms of worship as embodied in the ecological veneration of the cosmos. It shows how cosmic piety is becoming an essential component of modern culture in the current context of globalization, which frequently incorporates some crucial forms of rationality. Very often, the sacralization of nature appears to be a necessary precondition for the practice of ecological rationality given certain cognitive limitations and everyday anxieties of large populations in the contemporary world. The rise and fall of an ecocentric or cosmocentric mythology are considered, together with its consequences for societal adaptation to global environmental change.
... Doyle, 2005). If 'identity' is constructed in the course of struggle, so 'the environment' and the 'environmental' may be as well (Burningham & O'Brien, 1994). If there is a pattern, it is that popular local struggles emerge along the faultlines most prominent in a country at a particular time; in the global North the environmental faultline has become discursively salient, whilst in the global South it still competes with those of human rights and democracy. ...
Local environmental campaigns are ubiquitous and recurrent, even in times when environmental issues are not salient on national agenda. Yet their relationship to translocal environmental movements and issues has been relatively neglected. Local environmental campaigners are variously related to national and local organisations, and the peculiarities of place are one factor in that variation. But place itself acquires meaning through campaigns, and communities forge identity even as they mobilise against threats to their survival. The relationship between local campaigns and global environmental issues is problematic, but the ways in which local mobilisations often combine issues of environment, economic justice and democracy mirror the emerging agenda of transnational environmentalism.
Based on field research in villages and towns in the Komi Republic (northeastern European Russia), this article compares the perception of the environment with environmental knowledge, and examines their interrelations in local contexts. An individual's perception of the environment is embedded in his/her everyday engagement with the surroundings (‘the environment’ as seen from within). Environmental knowledge is of more cognitive character: it originates mainly from outside the context of everyday life and is imparted via various forms of communication (‘The Environment’ as seen from the outside). From the interplay of these two levels arises what we call local environmental knowledge, a kind of knowledge which has its own moral and symbolic dimension within the social, cultural and political setting. Similarly, the concept of environmentalism is increasingly recognised as a wide diversity of ‘green’ views and actions rather than as a single project of a globally consistent normative character; thus there is a need to examine the contextuality of environmental concern. Our findings explain the failure of the ‘information deficit’ model, according to which the dissemination of scientific knowledge about environmental problems should result in local inhabitants changing their attitudes towards ‘The Environment’. Instead, our findings support the insight that, rather than accepting environmental knowledge from external sources as a factual given, individuals restate it in terms of their everyday life contexts and local discourses about socio-political issues.
Many occupational settings located outdoors in direct sun, such as open cut mining, pose a health, safety, and productivity risk to workers because of their increased exposure to heat. This issue is exacerbated by climate change effects, the physical nature of the work, the requirement to work extended shifts and the need to wear protective clothing which restricts evaporative cooling. Though Ghana has a rapidly expanding mining sector with a large workforce, there appears to be no study that has assessed the magnitude and risk of heat exposure on mining workers and its potential impact on this workforce. Questionnaires and temperature data loggers were used to assess the risk and extent of heat exposure in the working and living environments of Ghanaian miners. The variation in heat exposure risk factors across workers’ gender, education level, workload, work hours, physical work exertion and proximity to heat sources is significant (p<0.05). Mining workers are vulnerable to the hazards of heat exposure which can endanger their health and safety, productive capacity, social well-being, adaptive capacity and resilience. An evaluation of indoor and outdoor Wet Bulb Globe Temperature (WBGT) in the working and living environment showed that mining workers can be exposed to relatively high thermal load, thus raising their heat stress risk. Adequate adaptation policies and heat exposure management for workers are imperative to reduce heat stress risk, and improve productive capacity and the social health of mining workers.
Sustainability is conceptualized as a process of balancing growth, equity, and preservation, a definition that is drawn from the 1987 Brundtland Commission report, Our Common Future. While making sustainability a universal objective, this definition conceptualizes sustainability as a one‐size fits all technocratic solution, which removes the concept from the context of specific societies that must engage with sustainable development. Social scientific data about the nature of values, where they come from, with whom they resonate, and what goals for conservation and development they establish are equally necessary for the understanding and framing of sustainability. Policies are more effective if they are embedded in the value systems they engage. Drawing on a case study of Iceland this study examines the nature of values in shaping sustainable outcomes. We argue that regulative, normative, cultural, and cognitive institutional structures are in constant interaction with value systems and sustainability conceptions. We find that institutional structures and pro‐sustainability values are mutually reinforcing: institutional structures and place amplify value orientation. In turn, values influence the orientation of status‐quo institutional structures. Working with interview data and using a grounded theory approach, we build a model for understanding how sustainability is conceptualized in Iceland working from values through agents and industrial bases to generate strategies of development. Icelanders operationalize concepts of sustainability through innovations that improve the efficiency and preservation of natural resources. Our findings add additional layers to conventional pathways of valuation and demonstrate the importance of place and context in situating values of development.
This article examines environmental public service announcements, or eco-PSAs, as increasingly crucial yet underinvestigated tools for environmental communication in mainland China. Following an overview of existing gaps in the literature on both visual and localized forms of environmental communication, it evaluates the birth, development and new trends of Chinese eco-PSAs. It then explains the process of data collection and the methodology employed, which is visual semiotic analysis. The corpus consists of seven print eco-PSAs, sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), that employ “Chinese elements” as the main creative strategy. Findings show that these eco-PSAs use a range of culturally loaded elements (from folk art and idioms to inanimate objects, from Chinese characters to animal symbols) as intertextual references or visual metaphors to promote awareness of animal protection, ecological protection and resource saving, and to reinforce national culture. This contribution opens up new directions in researching visual environmental communication in a global context and presents new empirical findings demonstrating that, in Chinese eco-PSAs, local culture still matters.
This paper argues that public understanding of climate change not only involves knowledge of its physical processes, but also encompasses wider issues concerning the relation between society and nature. It examines the conclusions of previous research, and assumptions made within the policy community concerning public understanding of climate change. It is argued that in each case, in accordance with the information deficit model, recorded levels of ignorance are seen as a barrier to effective public involvement in the policy process. This view is challenged by research findings from Newcastle, Australia. Public understanding of global environmental issues drew not only on scientific information, but also on local knowledges, values, and moral responsibilities. Further, respondents connected the issue to their communities, and suggested that individual action is morally sanctioned, despite concerns for the efficacy of such action and the lack of government or industry support. Where institutional realignment has occurred to provide renewable energy to householders, public involvement has been forthcoming. These findings suggest that rather than focus on the provision of information, policy attention should be directed to the social and institutional barriers that act to constrain public involvement in addressing global environmental issues.
This book is one in a series (Comparative Politics) for students and teachers of political science that deals with contemporary issues in comparative government and politics. It examines political parties in contemporary democracies, asking how relevant and vital they are, whether they fulfill the functions that any stable and effective democracy might expect of them, or whether they are little more than moribund anachronisms, relics of a past age of political life, now superseded by other mechanisms of linkage between state and society. The book addresses these questions through a rigorous comparative analysis of political parties operating in the world's advanced industrial democracies. Drawing on the expertise of a team of internationally known specialists, the book engages systematically with the evidence to show that, while a degree of popular cynicism towards them is often chronic, though rarely acute, parties have adapted and survived as organizations, remodelling themselves to the needs of an era in which patterns of linkage and communication with social groups have been transformed. This has enabled them, on the one hand, to remain central to democratic systems, especially in respect of the political functions of governance, recruitment and, albeit more problematically, interest aggregation. On the other hand, the challenges they face in respect of interest articulation, communication, and participation have pushed parties into more marginal roles within Western political systems. The implications of these findings for democracy depend on the observer's normative and theoretical perspectives. Those who understand democracy primarily in terms of popular choice and control in public affairs will probably see parties as continuing to play a central role, while those who place greater store by the more demanding criteria of optimizing interests and instilling civic orientations among citizens are far more likely to be fundamentally critical. After an introductory chapter the book has 13 chapters devoted to case studies of political parties in different countries/regions (Britain, Italy, Germany, France, the Low Countries (Belgium and the Netherlands), Scandinavia (Finland, Denmark, Norway, Sweden), Ireland, Spain, Europe (parties at the European level), the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand; these are followed by a concluding chapter.
Environment and Society examines the complex relationships between humans and nature from a new perspective, incorporating recent moves to situate sustainable development within a household and individual context. Through a series of theoretical and practical chapters, it builds a comprehensive account of the complex factors that underlie our everyday attitudes and behaviour towards the natural environment.
This chapter deals with the current global levels of domestic energy consumption and waste production that have been acknowledged as important contributors to detrimental environmental change. Political and academic interest in this component of sustainable development implementation stimulates debates in post-industrial nations concerning the social practices of contemporary consumerism and shows how to live in the future. In response, there has been a call for the development of national policies and strategies to encourage changes in consumption patterns. One approach has been the promotion of environmentally-friendly lifestyles, which often takes the form of media or community campaigns. These campaigns encourage individuals not only to decrease the amount consumed, but also alters the nature of goods consumed. This chapter has detailed the serious problems with current political usage, and emphasis on, environmental communications as a valid behavior-change strategy. It is shown how individuals react to communications, how they think about and address changing their lifestyles, and how they consider the current framing of the environmental problematique, all contrast markedly with the prevailing positivist assumptions underlying policy strategies.
Society faces risks, hazards, and crises on a seemingly daily basis. This is not new; indeed, pre‐modern societies were subjected to natural hazards that could be attributed to fate (e.g., natural disasters), and human‐made hazards considered manageable. However, late‐modern society is increasingly exposed to risks that are products of the modernization process itself (e.g., health impacts of climate change) emerging from broad changes in human‐environment interactions. We typically have insufficient or incomplete scientific knowledge to make calculated governance decisions that protect the public and our economies from these risks. Yet, a governance response is dictated. Understanding and anticipating public perceptions of emerging risks, therefore, has clear implications from both risk management and communication perspectives. Furthermore, it is essential that a response takes account of the context within which the risk is occurring. This paper describes the development of a place‐based conceptual framework for characterizing public response to emerging environmental health risks with the goal of informing governance responses. A worked example is provided through the application of the framework to the apparent epidemic of food allergies in Canada. Despite some gaps in available data, the framework appears robust and exhibits the potential to contribute to debates and decision‐making around risk governance.
Comprendre les risques environnementaux émergents pour la santé : un cadre pour réagir face à l'inconnu
Résumé
La société fait face quasi quotidiennement à des risques, dangers et crises. Ceci est loin d'être nouveau; en effet, les sociétés prémodernes étaient confrontées, d'une part, à des risques naturels (par exemple, des catastrophes naturelles) et croyaient être victimes de la fatalité et, d'autre part, à des risques anthropiques qu'elles croyaient pouvoir maîtriser. Toutefois, le degré d'exposition aux risques augmente pour la société moderne avancée, ces derniers étant dérivés du processus de modernisation (par exemple, les impacts sanitaires des changements climatiques) qui origine de changements majeurs dans les interactions entre l'humain et l'environnement. Les bases de connaissances scientifiques disponibles présentement sont généralement embryonnaires ou insuffisantes pour prendre des décisions éclairées de gouvernance afin de soustraire le public et nos économies à ces risques. Ainsi, des progrès de gouvernance s'imposent. Comprendre et anticiper les perceptions que le public se fait des nouveaux risques entraîne, par conséquent, des répercussions à la fois sur les modes de gestion des risques et sur la communication. En outre, il est essentiel de réagir en tenant compte du contexte dans lequel se produit le risque. Cet article retrace l'élaboration d'un cadre conceptuel fondé sur le lieu et visant à caractériser la réaction du public face aux nouveaux risques de santé environnementale afin d'éclairer les réactions de gouvernance. Un exemple pratique utilise ce cadre dans l'épidémie apparente d'allergies alimentaires au Canada. Malgré quelques lacunes dans les données disponibles, le cadre semble robuste et est susceptible de contribuer aux débats et à la prise de décision en matière de gouvernance des risques.
This copy of the thesis has been supplied on condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that no quotation from the thesis, nor any information derived therefrom, may be published without the author's prior, written consent.
In work in science, technology, and society social conflict around wind farms has a growing profile, not least because it draws our attention to two key interrelated themes: 'science, technology and governance' and 'socio-technological systems'. In this article on Australian wind farm development and siting, these themes are highlighted in contexts of sustainability, legitimacy, and competency for policy effectiveness. There is enduring social conflict around wind farms at the local community level, but little government understanding of this conflict or willingness to respond adequately to resolve it. This article examines the conflict through the lens of print media analysis. A key finding of the five identified is that people seeing wind farms as spoiling a sense of place is a primary cause of enduring social conflict at the local community level around wind farms, alongside significant environmental issues and inadequate community engagement; this finding also indicates a central reason for the highly problematic state of Australian wind energy transitions. In turn, by identifying this problematic situation as one of a significantly 'decoupled' and 'dysfunctional' condition of the Australian socio-technological wind farm development and siting system, I suggest remedies including those of a deliberative nature that also respond to the Habermas-Mouffe debate. These inform a socio-technical siting approach or pathway to better respect and navigate contested landscapes for enhanced renewable energy transitions at the local level.
This paper explores the significance fear plays, or does not play, in the practice of envisioning. Envisioning is seen as a powerful tool in the delivery of education for sustainable development, for it seeks to engage people in imagining and creating a better future. However, drawing on work undertaken with undergraduate students at the University of Glamorgan, South Wales, we argue that envisioning relies upon ‘absent fear’: it works to suppress, or make absent, fear as a valid response to present and future development. The presence of ‘absent fear’, we suggest, poses a barrier to fully engaging with the challenges and opportunities of a sustainable future, for it is difficult to conceive of a positive vision without first acknowledging and confronting our fears. It is in articulating fear, we observe, that people are more able to respond to the challenges of the future in hopeful and creative ways. Utilising work undertaken with our students this paper revisits envisioning and suggests the need to understand envisioning as a broader process of reflection and action.
A survey conducted in Istanbul (1995) provided data on residents' opinions about ideas contained in the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) Scale. The NEP scale was commonly accepted by Istanbul respondents, with the result adding to the evidence that considerable environmental concern exists in developing countries. Although some of the demographic parameters were related to the NEP scale, the patterns in the data did not point to any particular demographic group exhibiting higher environmental concern than others. Spatial perception of the environment and environmental problems, however, was linked to environmental concern. The respondents who identified the environment and related problems with a more spacious geographical frame were more concerned about the environment. Also, environmental knowledge of the respondents correlated positively with their environmental concern; the relation was the most conspicuous for ecological knowledge and nearly negligible for knowledge about local environmental problems.
"Turning the car inside out" describes how the environmental damage and social exclusion inflicted by the car can only be seen from outside the car. It explains how car use has reshaped land, time use, social relations and economic patterns. It creates ever more pressures for increased car use, yet inevitably leaves the people temporarily or permanently excluded from cars having to negotiate car distances and times. The worst scenario of car saturation is rejected as untenable both because of the permanent social and environmental impact, but also the self-defeating nature of the quest for mobility.
This cross-cultural discourse analysis examines the construction of environmental issues on Greenpeace web pages in China, Japan and Germany. To uncover the semantic representation of environmental activism on these sites, the authors sought to identify discursive homogeneity and divergence and to bring to light embedded cultural assumptions. The sites were examined between January and July 2003 to the fifth level. Multiple readings considered figures of style, lexical choices and lexical style, visual aspects, and topic and themes. The conclusion discusses the adeptness of localising and regionalising Greenpeace discourses but also points to a visible fragmentisation of environmental discourses as well as inherent inabilities to transcend highly localised understandings of the role of humans in nature. Most significantly, the study illustrates the discursive weight of implicit social and natural hierarchies.
The term “NIMBY” is used prolifically in both academic literature and general public discourse to describe a locally based action group protesting against a proposed development. It is frequently used to dismiss groups as selfish or ill-informed, as is illustrated both by those who accuse opponents of possessing such characteristics and also by the attempts of many community groups to reject the label. This lies in sharp contrast to the much encouraged notions of public participation in planning and community life as proposed by the UK government's proclaimed vision of a “sustainable community”. This paper argues that this dichotomy between “good” and “bad” participation can be misleading, by drawing on research from two case studies where locally based community groups opposed a specific, detailed development. The paper contributes to a burgeoning literature that reappraises conventional understandings of such groups by analysing often overlooked facets of protest groups, concluding that the conventional conceptualisations of them as NIMBY is inadequate and unhelpful in academic debate.
Global environmental issues have permeated many disciplines over the last decade. Within the social sciences they have sparked a debate about the extent to which any ‘ecological crisis’ can be seen as symptomatic of deeper changes within modernity. The strength of such an explanation is examined in this paper with reference to the ‘risk society’ thesis advanced by Ulrich Beck and its applicability to the case of the greenhouse issue in Australia. Australia has received much international criticism for its ‘differentiated’ approach to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change process. This paper examines how this approach has gained widespread currency within ‘official’ policy spheres through defining greenhouse risks in terms of the spatial and temporal referents of modernity: the individual; the nation‐state; political and investment timetables. The possibility of alternative public understandings of greenhouse risks and responsibilities is examined through recent work undertaken in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. It is argued that these may represent very different interpretations of the greenhouse issue from those encountered within the ‘official’ policy sphere. However, without a greater recognition on the part of policy elites of the need to address an issue like greenhouse at a local scale and through public involvement, and institutions through which to do so, these interpretations will have little impact on the ‘global’ process of negotiating greenhouse outcomes.
In this paper the authors explore data on environmental meanings, and the contextualisation of environmental concerns, that were obtained from a qualitative study of risks to health from air pollution. In-depth interviews were undertaken with 49 people living in two conurbations in north-east England. The findings highlight the importance of the local context (local history, experience, local knowledges and everyday existence) as an arena in which environmental meanings and concerns are constructed and negotiated, and how global environmental issues are also contextualised, and made sense of, within an explicitly local framework. These findings are used as a basis upon which to critically reflect upon the emphasis on globalisation within theoretical debates on 'risk society'.
This paper supports the use of a contextual value measurement technique for assessing tourism values as an alternative to the more common generic personal ones in everyday life approach. Specifically, a two dimensional model is proposed to integrate the literature and help to better understand tourism values. The two bi-polar dimensions: one, emotion-dominant and cognition-dominant and, two, inner-directed and outer-directed. This model is assessed using hierarchical log linear analysis to examine the effect of multiple, conflicting values on holiday behavior of the tourist.
This paper takes a constructivist technology studies approach to understand the changing shape of transport and mobility, tracing in particular the growing importance of discourses around sustainability and democratic involvement in transport and urban planning as well as in wider public debate. The concept of sociotechnical frames is used to capture the interaction between the technical, social and cultural dimensions of transport and mobility; sociotechnical change comes about when these different elements begin to pull apart from each other. In light of this framework, the paper examines shifts within the sociotechnology of transport and mobility since the late 1980s and draws on a case study of a controversial development dispute in the UK to examine how notions of sustainability and public involvement are constructed within local contexts. The case study highlights especially issues around the relative power to bring about change of different actors within a frame.
This paper draws general insights into the public reception of scientific knowledge from a case study of Cumbrian sheep farmers' responses to scientific advice about the restrictions introduced after the Chernobyl radioactive fallout. The analysis identifies several substantive factors which influence the credibility of scientific communication. Starting from the now-accepted point that public uptake of science depends primarily upon the trust and credibility public groups are prepared to invest in scientific institutions and representatives, the paper observes that these are contingent upon the social relationships and identities which people feel to be affected by scientific knowledge, which never comes free of social interests or implications. The case study shows laypeople capable of extensive informal reflection upon their social relationships towards scientific experts, and on the epistemological status of their own `local' knowledge in relation to `outside' knowledge. Public uptake of science might be improved if scientific institutions expressed an equivalent reflexive discourse in the public domain.
The 16 chapters are divided into 3 parts. Part 1 attempts a global perspective on transport planning, examining theories of transport development, urban transport, transport problems in London, energy options, regional and global income disparities and accident rates. Part 2 looks at transport practice, including policy formation, traffic forecasting, economic assessment procedures and public enquiries. Part 3 explores the subsconscious impulses behind progrowth transport planning, with discourses on distance, individualism and the divisive nature of high speed transport and communications. Urges the reader to consider whether increased mobility is really synonymous with progress. -after Author
Explores Greenpeace as an organizational weapon and as one aspect of a larger transformation taking place within the environmental movement. The present authors contend that it makes little sense to speak any longer of a unified environmental movement; instead the original unity of the movement has been fragmented within a number of different specialized organizations. By examining what they call the cognitive praxis of environmentalism in general and Greenpeace in particular, the authors illustrate the paradoxical nature of this fragmentation, how public "success" has been achieved, at least in part, by a rejection of ideological discourse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Public opposition to the disposal of radioactive waste in the United Kingdom has often been characterised as being largely of the “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) variety. In this paper, the history of policy for the management of radioactive waste in the United Kingdom is reviewed, highlighting the numerous shifts in policy and the combination of political and technical factors at work. It is argued that much of the public distrust of plans for radioactive waste and the public perception of the risks of the disposal of radioactive waste is heavily influenced by that history.
Reviewed in particular in this paper is the recent public discussion programme on the deep disposal of radioactive wastes. With use of the writings of C Wright Mills, it is argued that public responses to that programme of discussion reflect certain ‘vocabularies of motive’ which are constrained by the broad framework of policy for the management of radioactive waste in the United Kingdom. Rather than being simply NIMBY responses, many of the public views expressed reflect a hierarchy of concerns about environmental risks: local economic impact, health and the environment, and distrust of the nuclear industry. It is argued that the NIMBY concept may be applied too readily, a convenient attribution of motive which disguises a more fundamental range of technical, environmental, and socioeconomic concerns. The NIMBY concept should therefore be rejected as distorting and unhelpful.
What has happened in the ten years since Alma-Ata? Is the concept of health for all still alive and being worked into the fabric of health services? Is it evolving in the face of new problems and insights, or has there been a fading of vision, a crumbling of resolve? -from Authors
Health promotion is a highly fashionable term which has acquired so many meanings as to become meaningless.In this paper a number of current interpretations of the term are reviewed and appraised, and an attempt is made to tidy up the semantic mess once and for all.A model is offered whereby health promotion is seen as a realm of activities which differs in emphasis from the current power bases in health service provision. This model differs from previous definitions in its explicit examination of the important areas of overlap between component parts. It is useful as a framework for devising health promotion strategies and activities.
Cost-effectiveness analysis, which ranks projects by quality adjusted life years gained per dollar spent, is widely used in the evaluation of health interventions. We show that cost effectiveness analysis can be derived from two axioms: society prefers Pareto improvements and society values discounted life years, lived in perfect health, equally for each person. These axioms generate a unique social preference ordering, allowing us to find the cost effectiveness threshold to which health projects should be funded, and to extend cost effectiveness analysis to give a consistent method of project evaluation across all sectors of the economy.
- OECD
- Corell, R.