Environment: thematic carreer of a social construct Umwelt: Themenkarriere eines sozialen Konstrukts

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Environment thematic carreer of a social
construct (Umwelt Themenkarriere eines sozialen
Konstrukts)

• Volker Linneweber
• University of Magdeburg (FRG)
• Paper presented at the Symposium
• Environment in Natural and Socio-Cultural
  Context
• of the German-Japanese Society for Social
  Sciences (GJSfSS),
• Yokohama, Japan, Oct. 4-6 2002

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Organizer

• Results of recent surveys
• Looking back Last 40 years
• Analyses and explanations
• Looking back Last decade
• Empirical evidence
• Analyses and explanations
• Integrated model
• The future

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Organizer

• Results of recent surveys (Kuckartz, 2002)
• Looking back Last 40 years
• Analyses and explanations
• Looking back Last decade
• Empirical evidence
• Analyses and explanations
• Integrated model
• The future

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evaluating the quality of the environment
IKuckartz Jan/Feb 2002 survey, N2.361 (answers
in )
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evaluating the quality of the environment II
improvement Kuckartz Jan/Feb 2002 survey,
N2.361 (answers in )
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evaluating the quality of the environment III
impact on healthKuckartz Jan/Feb 2002 survey,
N2.361 (answers in )
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Naive earth system analysis anticipation of
scenarios (2000 survey)
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Sustainable Development still terra
incognita?2000 vs. 2002 survey, N2.018 vs.
2.361 (answers in )Question as a leading
principle for environmental protection
occasionally the term sustainable development
turns up. Have you already heard of the term or
have you not yet heard of it?
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Case-Study Sylt (Linneweber et al., 2000)
Subjective likelihood of tidal waves resulting
from greenhouse effect (N50 Ss.)
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Case-Study Sylt (Linneweber et al., 2000)
Evaluation of risk by increasing tidal waves (N
50 Ss.)
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Case-Study Sylt (Linneweber et al., 2000)
Certainty for likelihood of tidal waves
resulting from greenhouse effect (N50 Ss.)
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contextualizing environmental protection by
competitive topics I
Environmental protection Crime protection
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Voting preferences of environmentally engaged
citizens
...
/- x deviation from null hypothesis
??
184
86
- 25
-57
-19
societal penetration of environmentalism?
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Interim summary I

• Presently (2002), the evaluation of the
  environment shows a differentiated picture
• While the proximate environment (eg. own town)
  ist considered as pretty good, the quality of the
  environment worldwide is considered less positive
  and future problems are anticipated with high
  certainty
• Two reasons may explain this stable pattern
• The quality of the immediate environment in
  Germany in fact is evaluated as relatively good
• Psychologically, it is plausible to consider the
  proximate environment as pretty good, since this
  reduces cognitive dissonance
• The latter explanation also serves to explain the
  expectation of serious threats to health by
  environmemtal problems in future
• Interestingly, the orientation sustainable
  development although frequently discussed in
  science, politics and media is not very well
  known
• Voting preferences of environmentally enganged
  citizens indicate societal penetration of
  environmentalism

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Organizer

• Results of recent surveys
• Looking back last 40 years
• Analyses and explanations
• Looking back Last decade
• Empirical evidence
• Analyses and explanations
• Integrated model
• The future

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(No Transcript)
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Environment contextualized thematic carreer
Globe Nation Region Community individu
al
2002 Johannisb
1997 Kyoto
Following Conf.
1992 Rio
Globaliztion depletion of stratospheric ozone
layer, greenhouse effect, Club of
Rome, Brundtland, Biodiversity ?
Competing topics unification, economy, trans- fo
rmation ?
1973 Oil crisis
weather extremes storms, rain, flooding ?
acid rain, dying of Forests ?
polluted Rivers ?
Low level ozone ?
1960s 1970s 1980s
1990s 2000s
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Societal discourse on the environment since 1969
(Poferl, Schilling Brand, 1997)

• Phase I (1969-1974)
• marginal public debate
• top town, politics-based debate by government
  (SPD/FDP coalition)
• basics of environmental laws
• consensus on necessity of means to protect the
  environment

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Societal discourse on the environment since 1969
(Poferl, Schilling Brand, 1997)

• Phase II (1975-1982)
• Discrepancy between
• dominating tendency towards economic innovations
• and dramatic scenarios concerning limits of
  growth
• Polarization between
• bottom up movement
• and estabished political-industrial system

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Societal discourse on the environment since 1969
(Poferl, Schilling Brand, 1997)

• Phase III (1982-1990)
• green party moving into the parliament
• institutionalization of environmental movement
  and concerns of environmental policy
• greenization of public life and industry
• efforts for consensus and dialogue between
  environmentalists, state, political and economic
  actors

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Societal discourse on the environment since 1969
(Poferl, Schilling Brand, 1997)

• Phase IV (since 1991/92)
• discourse on economic crisis
• competing social and economic problems by geman
  re-unification
• new conflicts between interests concerning
  economic growth, social justice and environment
• at the same time maintenance of awareness for
  environmental problems and state of the debate,
  diffusion of the concept sustainable development

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Poferl et al. (1997) Relation between societal
discourse and everyday-life
Level of discourse on the environment
Tendencies science-orientation moralization polit
ization
Processes social definition of environmental
problems / debate on definition
Results different offers for symbolic meaning
societal dissemination of the topic
environment, infiltration into everyday-life
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Interim summary II

• In the last 40 years, the term environment has
  changed ist meaning
• While aspects immediately perceivable (eg.
  polluted rivers) dominated in the 60s,
• Air pollution and acid rain indicated
  trans-regional impacts in the 70s,
• Global environmental change has been discussed in
  the 80s,
• The attention to environmental problems
  apparently declined in the 90s.
• The change of meaning accompanied by political
  and societal developments as well as significant
  events (eg. Tschernobyl)
• Also, international developments in science and
  policy (eg Report of the Clube of Rome) had
  impacts on the thematic carreer
• The topic environment is increasingly
  contextualized debate on economy vs. ecology

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Organizer

• Results of recent surveys
• Looking back last 40 years
• Analyses and explanations
• Looking back Last decade
• Empirical evidence
• Analyses and explanations
• Integrated model
• The future

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Earth system analysis I CO2-emissions
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Earth system analysis II temperature
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Environmental protection as one of the most
important problems
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contextualizing environmental protection by
competitive topics II
Important tasks for policy
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contextualizing environmental protection by
competitive topics III
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evaluating the quality of the environment (Data
from Fed.Min.Env.) of persons evaluating the
environment as good and very good.evaluating
(east vs. west) the own ? / ? vs. the other area
? / ?
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Worldview myths of nature

• In the American "Culture Theory"
  Thompson/Ellis/Wildavsky (1990) have created a
  concept, that is suppose to describe the ways in
  which people perceive and interpret nature. They
  differentiate between four various ways of
  thinking
• the "sturdy nature",
• the "sensitive nature",
• the "limited tolerance nature", and
• the "unpredictable nature".
• These ways of thinking can be more or less
  summarized and symbolized as

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Worldview myths of nature and their acceptance
supporters (survey 2000)
4
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53
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Pawlik (1991) Psychological dimensions of global
environmental change

• Natural sciences and social vagueness
• Perceptive temporal and spatial indirectness and
  indirectness
• Rarity of clearly indicative occurrences
• Distance between actors and those affected
• Weak stimulus of non-direct egocentric behaviour

??
??
??
??
??
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Interim summary III

• A closed look to the last decade further
  indicates a contextualization of environment
• In surveys, environmental protection as one of
  the most important problems has dropped from 65
  in 1988 to 15 in 2002
• Closer alnalyses show that environment as
  important societal topic found prominent company
  by attention on
• integrating immigrants,
• health care,
• crime protection,
• unemployment,
• securing pension,
• Instigating the economy
• Social justice
• At the same time,
• the quality of the immediate environment is
  considered as increasingly positive
• Global environmental change is considered as
  increasingly problematic an the worldview of the
  limited tolerance nature is preferred

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Organizer

• Results of recent surveys
• Looking back last 40 years
• Analyses and explanations
• Looking back Last decade
• Empirical evidence
• Analyses and explanations
• Integrated model
• The future

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societal discourse on the environment
policy
economy
Window of visibility

• instable in
• size
• position
• transparency

science
NGOs

• Features
• media-based, variable.
• Predictors for variance in visibility
• competing topics
• significant events

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predictors of variance in visibility I

• competing topics
• related to other central values and derived
  orientors (Bossel, 1990)
• Existence prosperity, health
• Freedom of action individual feedom, feedom of
  partial systems, societal independence
• Security related to supplies, nation, threats
• Efficacy in steering, transformation
• Flexibility diversity, ability for innovations
• Responsibility (international) sociability,
  sustainability

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predictors of variance in visibility II

• significant events
• (natural) disasters
• particularly in proximity like weather extremes,
• significant human impacts (eg. Pollution, oil
  spills),
• and increasingly maladaptive structures.
• actor-related news
• Economy new technology (eg CFC substitutes,
  zero/low emission vehicles)
• science new scientific knowledge
• policy changes in environmental policy
• NGOs sensational activities

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Organizer

• Results of recent surveys
• Looking back last 40 years
• Analyses and explanations
• Looking back Last decade
• Empirical evidence
• Analyses and explanations
• Integrated model
• The future

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Utilization of environmental resources vs.
environmental protection
area of perfect fit
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Final summary

• After about 40 years of establishing the term
  environment in public, the present societal
  discourse on the environment is primarily driven
  by forces located in
• Economy
• Policy
• Science
• NGOs.
• The resulting window of visibility is
• instable in size, position and transparency,
• Media-based and variable.
• Predictors for variance are
• Competing topics, related to other societal
  orienters and
• Significant events like natural disasters and
  actor-related news.
• The future debate will further contextualize
  environmental protection, particularly by
  considerations on economy (e.g. reducing
  unemployment by environmentally friendly
  technologies optimal utilization of
  envoronmental resources).
• The relation between global environmental change
  and local events will shift into the focus of
  attention by decreasing scientific uncertainty
• New topics will be international security and
  environment (water, land use migration,
  environmental refugees).
• Presently the latter are not yet object of public
  debate.

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Thank you for your attention

• I will be happy to mail this presentation to you.
  Please write a message to
• Linneweber_at_gse-w.uni-Magdeburg.de