Lecture 7: public engagement Flashcards
What is important to remember about ‘the public’?
There are supposedly multiple publics that are distinguished based on different values, aspirations and demographic characteristics
What are the three aspects of public engagement?
Cognitive (understanding), affective (emotional) and behavioural
What are the two divisions for public engagement rationales?
Citizen and consumer
What are 3 aspects of each two different rationales for public engagement?
Citizen = policy legitimacy, public compliance, opportunities for mass mobilization, voting power Consumer = travel choices, food choices, home renovation
What are 7 actors responsible for shaping public engagement?
- Government
- NGOs
- Business
- Popular culture
- Media
- Education institutions
- Art exhibitions
What are 3 perspective on the levels of climate change engagement?
Spatial
Temporal
Spatio-temporal
What might explain spatial differences in the climate change engagement?
Differences in the associated impacts of climate change
What might explain temporal differences in the climate change engagement?
Certain events might happen which spark major interest in the issue
What are 3 example events that might explain spatial differences in climate change engagement?
- Oceania is subject to major impacts of climate change
- Some places might be expected to receive a lot of climate-displaced migrants and so may want to avoid it happening to avoid strain on them
- Places with a fragile or vulnerable economy to climate change may want to avoid it causing harm
What are 3 temporal events that could affect temporal differences in climate change engagement?
Climate change conference
Major climatic disaster
Major El Nino
What event sparked a major increase in the newspaper coverage of climate change or global warming?
Cancun UNFCCC conference (2010)
What are 5 potential barriers to engagement outlined by Lorenzoni et al. (2007)?
Shifting blame on to other countries
shifting responsibilities to other actors
Technological optimism
Social norms
Psychological spatial distancing from problem
Conflicting objectives
What are the 4 ways that people and groups interact?
Attitudes, understandings and habits
Heuristics
Social norms
Cognitive biases
What are heuristics?
People trying to work out things for themselves in unique ways to each other
What are cognitive biases?
people trying to simplify things in their own way and ending up with a personally-derived conclusion
How do cognitive biases interact with climate change?
It is a difficult thing to comprehend and so people try and make sense of it in their on ways that is not always correct
What are 3 models of predicting engagement?
Information deficit model
Social Amplificaiton of Risk (SARF)
Cultural Theory
What is the information deficit model?
media have failed in their duty to inform people of the science or scientists have failed in their duty to clearly explain the science
What is the social amplification of risk?
Communication of a risk event passes through different senders through intermediate stations to the receiver, these different stations can amplify or attenuate the risk through their own interpretation and then convey this to the next station. This will continue to be relayed down the social ladder
What are the 2 axis of the cultural theory used to predict engagement?
Support of social regulation and amount of social contract
What are the 4 types of people in the Cultural Theory and describe their characteristics
Fatalist - nature is a capricious and so the outcomes are a function of chance
Hierarchists - Nature is tolerant if treated with care and outcomes can be managed to be sustainable
Individualists - Nature is resilient and outcomes are a personal responsibility
Egalitarians - nature is vulnerable and outcomes require altruism and a common effort
What did the Yale Program on Climate Change communication (2016) state?
Only 51% of the American public is either alarmed or concerned about climate change
What did Corner, Markowitz and Pidgeon (2014) state?
- Specific feelings about climate change are derived from initial perceptios people form regarding the implications of climate change for the values that they strongly endorse
- The extent to which climate change can be made to seem in harmony/agreement with an individual’s or group’s values is likely to determine the effectiveness of communication strategies
- Positive spillover effect
What did Lorenzoni (2007) state?
Targeted and tailored information provision should be supported by wider structural change
- Evidence suggests that many barriers are impediments to more sustainable lifestyles in general - this questions the current emphasis on voluntary measures within the UK
What did Moser (2010) outline are challenging traits to the climate change probelm?
- invisible causes, distant impacts, insulation of modern humans from their specific environment, delayed or absent gratification for taking action
What did Moser (2010) outline should be changed/considered for future research and practice?
make impacts and solutions case-specific, encourage cross national research, explore use of visual communication methods, explore dialogue as method
What did Whitmarsh, O’Neill and Seyfang (2011) state?
Carbon is not a salient consideration in everyday decision making
Structural and cultural barriers to behaviour change