Beyond Frames: Recovering the Strategic in Climate Communication

Recent calls for communication scholars and practitioners to identify effective communication means for mobilizing constituencies to address climate change often fall to distinguish between communicative acts that “mobilize” and mobilization that enables a particular end. The latter presupposes an account of the intentional or strategic alignment of mobilization, that is, the predicted or assumed relationships among a mobilized public, the mode(s) of influence or leverage this creates, and the expected consequences of such influence, i.e., how specific communicative efforts are related to outcomes or “effects” within a system. This essay argues that the neglect of strategic alignments in some recent climate communication campaigns have caused these campaigns to be non-adaptive at the scale and/or urgency required. Drawing on case studies of the 2007 Step It Up initiative and the Sierra Club's “Beyond Coal” campaign, the essay proposes viewing the strategic as an heuristic for identifying openings within networks of contingent relationships and the potential of certain communicative efforts to interrupt or leverage change within systems of power.     

Positive framing does not solve the tragedy of the commons

We investigate whether positive framing increases cooperation in three social dilemmas with slightly different properties: a linear public goods (PG) game, a non-linear PG game, and a common pool resource (CPR) game. Results from our laboratory experiments show that contributions to a linear PG are higher if the externality is framed positively, rather than negatively, corroborating earlier findings by Andreoni (1995). By contrast, we find no such framing effects in the non-linear PG game or the CPR game. In these games, the best response in the material payoffs is to contribute less if others contribute more, counteracting effects of pro-social preferences. Positive framing therefore does not help to solve the tragedy of the commons.     

考虑期权采购的应急物资多种供应方式协调优化模型

突发事件的不确定性为灾后应急物资供应带来巨大挑战，而灾前政府难以控制相关应急物资的储备量及成本。实物储备、期权采购和市场化采购3种应急物资供应方式在灾前灾后应急物资保障具备各自的优势和弊端。仅靠单种物资供应方式难以权衡当前应急物资保障对经济性和时效性的要求，因此，需要将3种物资供应方式进行协调优化。对比3种供应方式在成本与效率方面的差异，利用期权采购弥补其他方式在成本和时效方面的不足，将3种物资采购方式协调整合。以政府和供应商双方签订期权契约为前提建立多种采购方式协调优化模型，通过优化算法求解模型。最后通过算例分析验证得出结论。研究结果表明:存在基于期权采购的多种采购方式并存的应急物资保障机制，可使应急物资供应的成本和效率得以权衡。     

Public support for carrot,stick, and no-government water quality policies

Public support for environmental policy provides an important foundation for democratic governance. Numerous policy innovations may improve nonpoint source pollution, but little research has examined which types of individuals are likely to support various runoff reduction policies. We conducted a household mail survey of 1136 residents in southern Wisconsin. In general, residents were more likely to support water quality policies if they were communitarians, egalitarians, concerned about water pollution, and perceived water quality as poor. The majority of respondents somewhat to strongly supported all of the seven proposed water quality policies, but opposed relying on voluntary action without government involvement on farms. Residents had higher support for incentives and market-based approaches (carrot policies) than regulation and taxes (stick policies). A more complicated pattern emerged in within-subject comparisons of residents’ views of carrot and stick approaches. Stick approaches polarized respondents by decreasing support among people with individualistic worldviews, while slightly increasing support among people with communitarian worldviews. Residents with an agricultural occupation were more likely to support voluntary, non-governmental approaches for reducing agricultural runoff, and were also more likely to support regulation for reducing urban lawn runoff. This research highlights the dominant role of cultural worldviews and the secondary roles of water pollution concern, perceived water quality, and self-interest in explaining support for diverse policies to reduce nonpoint source pollution.     

环境保护市场化推进实践与思考

在分析环境保护市场化推进经验与制约瓶颈的基础上,从公共物品、准公共物品和私人物品特征明显的环境保护领域3个方面提出了环境保护市场化推进的重点领域与推进机制,并从加大监察执法力度、优化专项资金使用、强化政策引导和加强环保市场监管等方面提出了环境保护市场化的推进措施与建议。     

基于利益相关者理论对环评公众参与方法的研究

针对目前我国环评公众参与工作过程中存在公参范围界定不够清晰、公参主体不够分明、公众参与方法存在技术上的空白等典型性问题。文章基于利益相关者理论,并依据《中华人民共和国环境影响评价法》、《环境影响评价公众参与暂行办法》等相关法律法规要求,确定建设项目环境影响评价的公众参与范围、主体和方法,借助利益相关者理论分析环境影响评价中各相关者的关系,提出切实可行的公众参与方法,为环境影响评价工作的进一步完善提供理论依据与技术支撑。     

政府采购环境标志电子产品的环境效益分析

实施政府绿色采购,引导和推动消费和生产向更可持续的方向发展是解决环境问题,实现经济社会全面可持续发展的必然要求.进行绿色采购成本效益分析是政府绿色采购政策可持续推进发展的有力保障.本文在介绍了中国环境标产品政府采购的现状和国外相关政府绿色采购环境效益研究的基础上,针对电子产品展开了相应的环境效益分析,最后对国内广泛开展此项工作的存在的问题和挑战进行了总结.     

Impacts of a participatory approach to developing national level sustainable development indicators in Finland

The paper explores the role of a participatory approach in the outcome of the Finnish sustainable development indicator (SDI) exercise in 1998-2002. The process is analysed through three main objectives: to achieve stronger democracy, better quality of the end product and a more effective process. The analysis is further structured by a set of criteria needed for successful participation and differentiation of types of participants. The criteria comprise three main aspects: fairness, competence and social learning. In addition to the normally mentioned stakeholders (e.g. citizens and interest groups) participants also include experts and civil servants. Using the set of criteria above the participatory approach of the Finnish SDI process is then evaluated, and in the light of this evaluation the paper also discusses the specifications needed as evaluation criteria for national level policy programme processes like developing the SDIs. The results are based on documentation of the indicator task force meetings, written comments and a study of the putative end-users conducted after the publication of the indicators. The results show that the intense and broad participation of experts and civil servants increased the competence of the outcome and led to greater efficiency in working methods. However, this led to technocratic participation, absence of democratic participation and absence of social learning. Thus the ultimate goal of SDIs to contribute to achieving sustainability was not reached.