Rhetorics of Environmental Sustainability: Commonplaces and Places

1998 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-353 ◽  
Author(s):  
G Myers ◽  
P Macnaghten
Keyword(s):  
Focus Groups ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Practical Action ◽  
The Public ◽  
Organisational Communication ◽  
Explicit Content ◽  
Local Levels

Although a rhetoric of sustainability is now widely used by government, nongovernmental organisations, and business in addressing the public, there is no evidence of a broad shift of behaviour in response to it. Yet most sustainability programmes at international, national, and local levels require broad public participation if they are to reach their goals. We argue that organisational communication with the public is central to defining the form of participation that is expected, and that rhetorical analysis can show relationships that are implicit in these attempts to persuade. We analyse leaflets from a range of organisations to identify some of the elements that are common between them, both in their explicit content and their implied models of participation. Then we analyse the responses in focus groups to these common appeals. Our findings show that the generalised appeals and the rhetoric of crisis tend to distance policy organisations from the immediacy and dailiness of the public's own experiences of and talk about the environment. Because of this distance, the rhetoric does little to encourage participation and practical action.

Community views and perspectives on public engagement in health technology assessment decision making

2017 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 68 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Wortley ◽  
Allison Tong ◽  
Kirsten Howard
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Health Technology Assessment ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Healthcare System ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Technology Assessment ◽  
Health Technology ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
The Public

Objectives The aim of the present study was to describe community views and perspectives on public engagement processes in Australian health technology assessment (HTA) decision making. Methods Six focus groups were held in Sydney (NSW, Australia) as part of a broad program of work on public engagement and HTA. Eligible participants were aged ≥18 years and spoke English. Participants were asked about their views and perspectives of public engagement in the HTA decision-making process, with responses analysed using a public participation framework. Results Fifty-eight participants aged 19–71 years attended the focus groups. Responses from the public indicated that they wanted public engagement in HTA to include a diversity of individuals, be independent and transparent, involve individuals early in the process and ensure that public input is meaningful and useful to the process. This was consistent with the public participation framework. Perceived shortcomings of the current public engagement process were also identified, namely the lack of awareness of the HTA system in the general population and the need to acknowledge the role different groups of stakeholders or ‘publics’ can have in the process. Conclusions The public do see a role for themselves in the HTA decision-making process. This is distinct to the involvement of patients and carers. It is important that any future public engagement strategy in this field distinguishes between stakeholder groups and outline approaches that will involve members of the public in the decision-making process, especially if public expectations of involvement in healthcare decision-making continue to increase. What is known about this topic? The views and perspectives of patients and consumers are important in the HTA decision-making process. There is a move to involve the broader community, particularly as decisions become increasingly complex and resources more scarce. What does this paper add? It not been known to what extent, or at what points, the community would like to be engaged with the HTA decision-making process. The present study adds to the evidence base on this topic by identifying features of engagement that may be important in determining the extent of wider public involvement. It is clear that the community expects the system to be transparent, for patients to be involved early in specific processes and the wider community to be able to contribute to the broader vision of the healthcare system. What are the implications for practitioners? A formalised strategy is needed to include the public voice into health technology decisions. With the current level of reform in the healthcare sector and the focus on creating a sustainable healthcare system, there is a real opportunity to implement an approach that not only informs patients and the community of the challenges, but includes and incorporates their views into these decisions. This will assist in developing and adapting policy that is relevant and meets the needs of the population.

scholarly journals What Drives People to Complain about Environmental Issues? An Analysis Based on Panel Data Crossing Provinces of China

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1147 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingjing Zeng ◽  
Meng Yuan ◽  
Richard Feiock
Keyword(s):  
Panel Data ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Ordinary Least Squares ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Opportunity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Waste Gas ◽  
Administrative Units ◽  
Civic Environmentalism

Strengthening public participation has often proven essential for achieving environmental sustainability goals. The “Xinfang”system, through complaint visits and letters, offers institutional channels through which the public’s grievances can be addressed, and where court judgments can be challenged by filing complaints about environmental problems to Environmental Protection Bureaus. Operating under the monopoly of the state Party, the “Xinfang” system provides the political opportunity for pro-environmental values and interests to be voiced and heard by governments. Importantly, comprehending the evolution of public complaints over a prolonged period of time sheds light on various determinants of this public participation program. This paper seeks to better understand environmental degradation caused by unbridled economic growth in China and the efforts that civic environmentalism has made to reduce the problem. More specifically, it uses panel data on 31 Chinese provincial/first level administrative units, collected over a decade, from 2003 to 2015, to analyze how socioeconomic status in the general public and the political and policy structures have shaped civic environmentalism. We use two Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) models to explore how these actors have propelled the public to protect their environment from discharged industrial wastewater, industrial waste gas, and solid wastes.

Partisipasi Masyarakat dalam Proses Kebijakan Daerah

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-177
Author(s):  
Abdullah Manshur
Keyword(s):  
Public Policy ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Policy Evaluation ◽  
Policy Process ◽  
Policy Formulation ◽  
Problem Situation ◽  
Policy Cycle ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
The Public ◽  
Policy Making Process

Public policy is a decision to deal with a particular problem situation, that identifies the objectives, principles, ways, and means to achieve them. The ability and understanding of policy makers in the policy-making process is very important for the realization of public policy of rapid, accurate and adequate. The product to suit the needs of the public policy, public participation in the policy process is needed in the policy cycle, from policy formulation to policy evaluation. This paper attempts to review the importance of community participation and other forms of public participation in the policy process, in particular, policy areas.

scholarly journals Application of the watershed sustainability index in the Piranhas-Açu watershed

Water Policy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 622-640
Author(s):  
D. D. Costa e Silva ◽  
H. M. L. Chaves ◽  
W. F. Curi ◽  
J. G. V. Baracuhy ◽  
T. P. S. Cunha
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Water Resources ◽  
Public Participation ◽  
Analysis Method ◽  
Resources Management ◽  
The Public ◽  
Sustainability Index ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Semi Arid Region ◽  
Brazilian Northeast

Abstract The current worldwide water resources issue is one of the crucial matters to overcome obstacles to sustainable development. This problem, formerly tackled in a sectored manner, is now pointing towards an analysis directed to treating the watershed as a management unit, with regards to all dimensions of knowledge and, especially, to the public participation in the decision-making processes. As an alternative to measure its performance, it has been sought out to develop indexes aimed to measure its sustainability, but there is still a lack of the use of composed efficient methodologies that also enable public participation in decision-making. This research presents a methodology comprising 15 indexes for the calculation of the Watershed Sustainability Index (WSI), followed by the application of the PROMETHEE multi-criteria analysis method and the COPELAND multi-decision-maker method. The methodology was applied to evaluate the performance of subwatersheds of the Piranhas-Açu watershed, located in the Brazilian northeast semi-arid region. The performance ordering, obtained through the application of the methods, emphasizes that subwatersheds' performances are uneven. It can be noticed that the subwatersheds' performances are still far from ideal in relation to water resources management, even in the ones that displayed satisfactory index levels.

The roles of rhetoric in the public understanding of science

1994 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-23 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan G. Gross
Keyword(s):  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Public Understanding Of Science ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Minor Role ◽  
Contextual Model ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
The Public ◽  
Science Rhetoric ◽  
Understanding Of Science ◽  
Social Scientific

In the public understanding of science, rhetoric has two distinct roles: it is both a theory capable of analysing public understanding and an activity capable of creating it. In its analytical role, rhetoric reveals two dominant models of public understanding: the deficit model and the contextual model. In the deficit model, rhetoric acts in the minor role of creating public understanding by accommodating the facts and methods of science to public needs and limitations. In the contextual model, rhetoric and rhetorical analysis play major roles. Rhetorical analysis provides an independent source of evidence to secure social scientific claims; in addition, it supplies the grounds for a rhetoric of reconstruction, one that reconstitutes the fact and facts of science in the public interest.

Emotions in performance: Poetry and preaching

2017 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-102
Author(s):  
Carla Petievich ◽  
Max Stille
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Cultural Tradition ◽  
Public Performance ◽  
The Public ◽  
Collective Emotions ◽  
Performance Poetry ◽  
Performance Traditions ◽  
History Of ◽  
Modern Nation State

Emotions are largely interpersonal and inextricably intertwined with communication; public performances evoke collective emotions. This article brings together considerations of poetic assemblies known as ‘mushāʿira’ in Pakistan with reflections on sermon congregations known as ‘waʿz mahfil’ in Bangladesh. The public performance spaces and protocols, decisive for building up collective emotions, exhibit many parallels between both genres. The cultural history of the mushāʿira shows how an elite cultural tradition has been popularised in service to the modern nation state. A close reading of the changing forms of reader address shows how the modern nazm genre has been deployed for exhorting the collective, much-expanded Urdu public sphere. Emphasising the sensory aspects of performance, the analysis of contemporary waʿz mahfils focuses on the employment of particular chanting techniques. These relate to both the transcultural Islamic soundsphere and Bengali narrative traditions, and are decisive for the synchronisation of listeners’ experience and a dramaticisation of the preachers’ narratives. Music-rhetorical analysis furthermore shows how the chanting can evoke heightened emotional experiences of utopian Islamic ideology. While the scrutinised performance traditions vary in their respective emphasis on poetry and narrative, they exhibit increasingly common patterns of collective reception. It seems that emotions evoked in public performances cut across ‘religious’, ‘political’, and ‘poetic’ realms—and thereby build on and build up interlinkages between religious, aesthetic and political collectives.

scholarly journals Council Press Offices as Sources of Political Information: Between Journalism for Accountability and Propaganda

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 34
Author(s):  
Vanessa Rodríguez-Breijo ◽  
Núria Simelio ◽  
Pedro Molina-Rodríguez-Navas
Keyword(s):  
Local Government ◽  
Focus Groups ◽  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Qualitative Approach ◽  
Political Information ◽  
Political Leaders ◽  
The Public ◽  
Selection Of

This study uses a qualitative approach to examine what political and technical leaders of municipalities understand transparency and public information to mean, and what role they believe the different subjects involved (government, opposition, and the public) should have. The websites of 605 Spanish councils with more than 100,000 inhabitants were analysed and three focus groups were held with political and technical leaders from a selection of sample councils. The results show that the technical and political leaders of the councils do not have a clear awareness of their function of management accountability or of the need to apply journalistic criteria to the information they publish, defending with nuances the use of propaganda criteria to focus on the actions of the local government, its information, the lack of space dedicated to public debate and the opposition’s actions. In relation to accountability and citizen participation, they have a negative view of citizens, who they describe as being disengaged. However, they emphasize that internally it is essential to continue improving in terms of the culture of transparency and the public information they provide citizens.

scholarly journals Opening a Path towards Sustainable Corporate Behaviour: Public Participation in Criminal Environmental Proceedings

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (14) ◽  
pp. 7886
Author(s):  
Pavel Kotlán ◽  
Alena Kozlová ◽  
Zuzana Machová
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Criminal Liability ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Criminal Proceedings ◽  
Human Rights Protection ◽  
The Public ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Non Governmental Organizations

Establishing criminal liability for environmental offences remains daunting, particularly with regard to the ‘no plaintiff—no judge’ element as a result of which the public seems to be ultimately deprived of the possibility to participate in criminal environmental proceedings. While there is arguably a lack of specific instruments at the European Union (EU) level which would prescribe such legal obligation on the part of the State, there has been a shift in understanding the role of the public and its participation in criminal liability cases, namely under the auspices of the so-called effective investigation and the concept of rights of victims in general. Using the example of the Czech Republic as a point of reference, this article aims to assess the relevant legal developments at both EU and Czech levels to illustrate why the non-governmental organizations (NGOs), essentially acting as public agents, should be granted an active role in environmental criminal proceedings. After examining the applicable legal framework and case law development, the article concludes that effective investigation indeed stands as a valid legal basis for human rights protection which incorporates an entitlement to public participation. Despite that, this pro-active shift is far from being applied in practice, implying that the legislation remains silent where it should be the loudest, and causing unsustainable behaviour of companies.

The Interrelation between Public Participation and Access to Justice in the eia Context in the Face of the Increasing Use of Digital Technologies: Comment on the cjeu Judgment in the A.Flausch et al Case (C-280/18)

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 39-55
Author(s):  
Vasiliki (Vicky) Karageorgou
Keyword(s):  
Public Participation ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Specific Aspect ◽  
Time Limit ◽  
Access To Justice ◽  
Eu Law ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Face ◽  
Procedural Autonomy

Abstract The article analyzes the cjeu Judgment in the A. Flausch et al case, which concerns the compatibility of the Greek procedural rules relating to specific aspects of the public participation in the eia context and to a specific aspect of access to justice (time limit) with the respective EU Law provisions in the face of the increasing use of digital technologies in the public participation procedures. This ruling is important, because it sets limits to the procedural autonomy of ms when it comes to the rules that are applied to the eia-related disputes and those that concern the public participation arrangements. It demonstrates, though, the lack of a steady line in the Court’s jurisprudence concerning the standards for assessing the national procedural rules and the role of Article 47 cfr. Moreover, the Court did not lay the ground for an interpretation of the ΕU public participation provisions in a way that an obligation for taking measures could be established, with the aim to ensure equal participation opportunities.

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