“Stop Blaming the Cows!”: How Livestock Production is Legitimized in Everyday Discourse on Facebook

In 2016, Swedish climate reporting declined in quantity and shifted focus somewhat from climate change as such to the harmful climate impacts of meat consumption. The latter prompted discussions in social media—an increasingly important forum for public debate but infrequently studied in environmental communication research. Despite strong evidence that a meat and dairy-based diet is harmful for the environment, meat consumption is increasing, and this qualitative study aims to—through the lens of social representation theory—contribute knowledge about how livestock production is legitimized in everyday discourse on Facebook. The article identifies representations that legitimize livestock production through polarization between (1) livestock production and other (environmental) issues, (2) environmentally “good” and “bad” countries, and (3) “reliable” and “unreliable” information. It concludes by discussing the influence of national ideology on the legitimization of livestock production and the potential of social media to counter the post-politicization of environmental issues.     

External Communication About Sustainability: Corporate Social Responsibility Reports and Social Media Activity

External communication about corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability activities may vary significantly across firms. Communication channel, content, and frequency may reflect a company’s resource allocation priorities, its culture, and its leadership in the sustainability domain. This empirical research compares n?=?11 global consumer apparel companies, with brands ranging from Adidas to Prada to Wrangler, in terms of their communication about CSR and sustainability in both formal outlets (annual CSR reports), informal channels (Twitter and Facebook social media), and voluntary participation in external rankings (the Global Reporting Initiative). In addition, the sample is divided into “High-Ranked” and “Low-Ranked” subsamples, using Newsweek’s Greenest Companies 2014 rankings, to examine if companies ranked highly by Newsweek communicate more often and display higher levels of engagement in sustainability reporting, compared to low-ranked firms. Results provide support for our research propositions. We conclude with recommendations for companies seeking to strengthen their CSR external communication.     

The Country,the City,and the Corporation: Rio Tinto Kennecott and the Materiality of Corporate Rhetoric

Contributing to extant discourses about corporate environmental advocacy, this paper argues that corporations can embed discursive rhetorical strategies in material places and spaces. This argument contributes to environmental communication by bridging divisions between discursive and materialist approaches to corporate rhetoric. Corporate materiality is realized in the study of Rio Tinto Kennecott (RTK) at places of corporate community where RTK enunciates a dominant environmental discourse about the necessity of the Bingham Canyon Mine through strategies such as the technological shell game, the hypocrite's trap, and corporate heterotopia, which are made manifest materially alongside cultural values such as epistemic trust, technological progress, community, and home. Using participatory critical rhetoric as a methodology, I analyse RTK's material rhetoric at the Natural History Museum of Utah, the Rio Tinto Soccer Stadium, and the Daybreak suburban community. This case study reveals that corporations are assemblages that assert many different, and sometimes competing, arguments that can deflect environmental criticism, materially.     

生态补偿理论研究进展及争论——基于生态与社会关系的思考

生态补偿的概念自提出便受到学界和政府决策者的广泛关注,并迅速成为近20年来生态保护的主要政策手段。虽然基于生态补偿的政策手段被大范围使用,但是生态补偿的相关理论却处于发展与争论的阶段,该理论的适用性及对现实问题的剖析在实践过程中备受质疑。本文梳理了生态补偿理论发展及构建的过程,将其总结为生态系统服务概念的提出、生态系统服务价值评估方法的建立、以及生态系统服务市场机制的构建三个主要阶段。已有研究更多集中在生态补偿的具体实施层面,如补偿标准、补偿方式、效果评估等方面,但是对基础理论探讨不足。本文从生态补偿理论发展及构建的三个过程,综述了目前对生态补偿理论的讨论及争议,认为在处理"社会—生态"关系的核心问题上,尤其在一些长期依赖并利用自然资源的传统地区或者民族地区,目前学术界和政策决策者均对此问题缺乏深入的理解,这也是实践中生态补偿政策未达到理想效果的主要原因之一。最后,本文提出用"社会生态系统服务"一词代替目前所使用的"生态系统服务",这一概念有助于在理论上避免忽视社会系统及社会与生态系统二者之间的关系,减少不当外部政策干预。     

Evaluating the aesthetic value of cultural ecosystem services by mapping geo-tagged photographs from social media data on Panoramio and Flickr

Traditional approaches for evaluating aesthetic value rely on surveys or interviews. Social media provides a new type of crowdsourcing data to examine the relationships between aesthetic value and citizens' activities. The main goal of this paper was to evaluate aesthetic value in Nebraska by using citizen-reported geo-tagged photographs posted on two social media sites – Panoramio and Flickr. The study used the application programming interface from Panoramio and Flickr to obtain the latitude and longitude of the geo-tagged photographs, and then used ArcGIS spatial statistical tools to examine spatial patterns with areas of aesthetic value in Nebraska. The outcomes identified the clusters of pictures with the locations of ecosystem service provisioning areas of aesthetic value in Nebraska, identified new areas with aesthetic value, and drew comparisons with local and regional population distribution. This study provided an innovative approach to using crowdsourcing data to verify the value of ecosystem services.     

Social influences on expressed willingness to pay: results of a deliberative monetary valuation study in Colombia

Deliberative monetary valuation (DMV) methods can support environmental decision making by enabling the exchange of arguments and information to produce more democratic outcomes. The product of a valuation may be an array of expressions of willingness to pay (WTP) by individuals or a collectively agreed monetary value. Concerns have been raised, however, as to whether this product is an outcome of thoughtful and independent decision-making or influenced by social pressures to conform. Our study examines this issue and addresses concerns about the use of DMV, based on a public deliberation of forest conservation in Colombia. We analyzed the impacts of social conformity on WTP under two different decision scenarios: individual and collective. The results suggest that the impacts of social conformity are greater when a collective decision is required. These findings indicate that tensions between the differing goals of DMV could undermine its democratic promise.     

The challenges of participatory and systemic environmental management: from aspiration to implementation

Participatory and systemic approaches in environmental management are advocated as they are thought to lead to more equitable, resilient and integrated solutions. However, there is mounting evidence that, in practice, these approaches are exceedingly challenging and do not always lead to improved environmental management, or greater community engagement. To better understand the challenges facing organisations wishing to use these approaches, we monitored the dynamics of a decision-making process on an estate. We observed an oscillating pattern of widening and narrowing participation and integration. Three key factors created tensions with the estate's desires to increase community participation and follow a more systemic approach: stewardship values, organisational capacity and unresolved core issues. A combination of these tensions and other factors led to the early cessation of a series of planned participatory workshops. We conclude that academia needs to take these challenges seriously by placing greater emphasis on multi-dimensional, transdisciplinary analysis of such transformation processes.     

关于中国社会化环境监测机构监管的调研与建议

调查了中国约50%的省级环保部门针对社会化监测机构的监管实践,研究了英、美等7个国际认可组织在实验室认可过程中针对环境监测的管理措施与经验。在此基础上,分析了中国现有监管体制存在的问题,探索引入实验室认可等监督途径,有针对性地补充和完善现有环境监测机构管理体系,将有助于引导社会力量广泛参与环境监测,规范社会环境监测机构行为,促进环境监测服务社会化良性发展。     

From consultation to deliberation? Tracing deliberative norms in EIA frameworks in Swedish roads planning

This paper presents the results of an analysis of deliberative norms in the framework for Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) in roads planning in Sweden. The more specific question is how this framework has responded to the shift towards more deliberative approaches to planning and decision making, advocated in planning theory and policy literature over the last decade. The analysis, which compares the current framework and guidance with an earlier iteration, identifies a shift towards deliberation; deliberative norms are present, and even dominate recent guidance. However, an instrumental norm permeates both the former and the current guidance, suggesting that even as a language of consultation is replaced by one of deliberation, the intention remains to secure and legitimise a smooth development pathway. Evidence from interviews with professionals working in the Swedish EIA system highlights the difficulties of navigating these uncertainties in practice. By opening up critical analysis of deliberative norms as they shape the conditions for practice, this study contributes to the continuous development of planning practice, by supporting a more normatively reflexive approach to framework-design.     

A Property Rights Approach to Understanding Human Displacement from Protected Areas: the Case of Marine Protected Areas

Abstract:  The physical, economic, and sociocultural displacement of local peoples from protected areas generates intense discussion among scholars and policy makers. To foster greater precision and clarity in these discussions, we used a conceptual framework from the political economy literature to examine different forms of human displacement from protected areas. Using marine protected areas (MPAs) to ground our analysis, we characterized the 5 types of property rights that are reallocated (lost, secured, and gained) through the establishment of protected areas. All forms of MPA "displacement" involve reallocation of property rights, but the specific types and bundles of rights lost, secured, and gained dramatically shape the magnitude, extent, and equity of MPA impacts—positive and negative—on governance, economic well-being, health, education, social capital, and culture. The impacts of reallocating rights to MPA resources vary within and among social groups, inducing changes in society, in patterns of resource use, and in the environment. To create more environmentally sustainable and socially just conservation practice, a critical next step in conservation social science research is to document and explain variation in the social impacts of protected areas.